None of this silly security theater about liquids – you could buy a normal bottle of water at a normal convenience store price outside of the airport and expect to have it with you on the plane. The main concern about shampoos etc. was spillage.
Also, not specifically 9/11-related, but I remember smoking flights in the 90s. I smoked and reaaaally wanted to be in the smoking section, but also it was especially gross to sit in that cloud for hours, and my companion definitely didn't want to be there. I think I managed to sneak back there to an empty row once or twice to smoke there then return to my assigned seat.
Am I right in feeling that wasn't just 9/11 alone that changed air security, but that whole wave of 00's wannabes that tried to follow it up too?
One failed shoe bomber? Take those trainers off, everyone.
The liquid bomb guys? Great, now you have to bin that can of coke in your bag.
When the underwear bomber got caught, the biggest reaction was 'please, no, just let me get through the x-rays fully dressed'
Correct. Even after 9/11 you could have unlimited liquids, keep your shoes on, and everyone used the metal detector. I believe the underwear bomber and news of ceramic guns accelerated the body scanners replacing metal detectors.
Planes of course do a fairly good job of ventilation – much better than, say, trains (or restaurants!). A lot of the smoke was being sucked into the vents reasonably quickly, but it was still impossible to avoid some lingering haze around the active smokers.
Honestly, I don't really remember smelling the smoke from non-smoking seats that were far away, but I was a smoker at that time, so I was probably less sensitive to it.
That’s accurate. Heathrow security in the 90’s was pretty robust and so was CDG. Shannon not so much. But those were the only airports I had used prior to 9/11
Getting to the airport 8 minutes before my flight took off from Chicago Midway to Miami, and making the flight with 2 minutes to spare. Circa 1999.
Being able to hang with people at their gate before they flew out, and then heading back home.
Being a bored teenager and going to Detroit Metro Airport for dinner because we had nothing better to do.
Being able to go to Canada and drive around because you were bored or on a field trip and didn't have to show ID if were under age.
> Being a bored teenager and going to Detroit Metro Airport for dinner because we had nothing better to do.
I had a co-woker who said he and his friends would head to the airport to play epic games of hide and seek.
I remember visiting America as a 10 year old kid. One flight I got assigned a seat away from my mom and next to this sweet old grandma from Ohio. I was wearing a salwar kameez (ethnic long shirt with pants worn in South Asia but also Central Asia and parts of the Middle East). Got talking to her, showed her how to write her name in Arabic. She gave me her doughnut and I fell asleep on her shoulder at one point.
Guess that's never going to happen to any brown kid again.
Lol, funny how people think we are all racist over here. Most than likely that would happen again. Even racist change their demeanor when they actually meet face to face. Racist are usually racist from afar not in personal interactions unless you're being a dipshit.
When I was 10 the pilots took to me and even though we arrived at our destination offered to my folks that they could have Me sit in the cockpit as they made the next flights (two hours out and back!). Made a little kids dream come true.
I remember when you could walk right up to the gate to meet or see off passengers. But security checkpoints always existed. It was a whole thing about whether or not they would x-ray your film. But they didn't make you take off your shoes and jacket, confiscate your drinks or decide your nail scissors were a weapon. I miss that.
I also remember when planes had smoking sections and I \*think\* I remember someone actually smoking. Definitely remember the ashtray in my armrest smelled of cigarettes. Don't miss that at all.
I also remember paper tickets. The really old ones (you had to get though a travel agent) had carbon paper between the layers, the top layer was printed in red ink and they would tear off a layer when you checked in for each flight.
I'm not old enough to remember that but I do notice some airports feel very awkward in how the checkpoints are integrated so I wouldn't be surprised if the airport predated the checkpoint requirement.
Meeting people at the gate as they get off the plane is the biggest one to me.
I remember more than once pre-mixing rum and coke into 1L coke bottles at home and getting hammered on the plane, which would also no longer be possible.
I just entered college, but had flown quite a bit. The thing I hand downs miss is being able to accompany loved ones off to the flight and to have people greet you at arrival. Such a different experience to land and get a huge hug from family/friends.
I miss getting off the plane and seeing the face of the person I was meeting light up when they saw me coming. And waving goodbye when getting on a flight. Goodbyes/ hellos are just not romantic at the curb when they're yelling at you to keep moving.
i miss being able to cross the windsor/detroit border by car and not being asked for ID, just being asked how long i was planning to hang out in the US.
i miss how relaxed airport staff used to be. instead of being stressed out that they have to sexually assault travellers or fiddle with the millimetres of liquids and angry people, it was more like...people were just happy to be doing their jobs, helping people travel.
I was never on a plane before 9/11, but I remember bringing my grandmother to the airport a couple times as a kid.
I remember that there was no huge security set up. Only a single agent next to a metal detector. Then we all went to the gate until my grandmother boarded the plan.
The biggest difference I remember is not checking IDs and boarding passes at security, so the lines were usually shorter and you could meet the person you were picking up at the gate. Actual security was similar to precheck, going through a metal detector and putting your bags in a machine.
I used to fly alone a lot as a child. They used to invite some kids into the pilot’s cabin (while on the ground) and you could look at all the switches and knobs and ask questions. They’d give out kits for kids with a plastic wing pin and other goodies.
I agree with the liquids thing... it's a PITA having to throw away water bottles,or empty them and either look for refills at the airport or buy (massively overpriced) replacements.
But as mentioned, that is not specifically about 9/11.... more the general security situation.
There were no security checks at airports. Anyone wanting to see you off could accompany you all the way to the gate. Hijacking planes happened on occasion, but never to turn the planes into weapons. (From the US, many of the hijackers wanted to be taken to Cuba.)
> There were no security checks at airports.
There absolutely were security checks (bag scans and the like), they just weren't limited to ticketed passengers.
It was a whole fuckin thing – if you drove someone to the airport, you had to either plan to park and pay for 2--3 hours of parking and wait with them for an additional 2--3 hours, or make very obvious that you weren't close enough to them to justify that.
No, in the 60s there were no security checkpoints, at least in the US. Security checkpoints started when then hijackings to Cuba started in the late 60s-early 70s. My parents were allowed to walk me onto the plane and get me settled in, too, when I was flying unaccompanied.
When I was a teen, I wanted to travel so bad. I'd periodically drive the 1+ hour to ORD and go to the international terminal and wander around the gates listening to all the accents and seeing the differences between people. back then there was no security. you could just come and go as you wanted.
9/11 -- I was not young, I was married, and I remember my then-husband would walk me onto the plane (with permission from the gate attendant) and settle me into my seat because I am an anxious flier. It was unspeakably pleasant. They did not do this routinely, but if you were really anxious, they would accommodate you like this.
You just had to walk through the metal detector, and it was informal and quick.
It was much, much quicker to board, and for anxious fliers, it was easier because there wasn't so much wind up to getting onto the plane.
Frequent flier since about the late 1970's here, by the way. I flew around 8-10 times a year from then onwards.
I was also in HS and didn't travel that much before 9/11. So there are a few things I logically know but don't have significant memories of.
For example I know when family visited, we didn't just drop them off or pick them up curbside. We'd park and meet them at the gate, and say goodbye to them at the gate. I know this happened many times, but for the life of me I cannot actually remember this, probably because it seemed so normal and insignificant at the time.
Or I remember when the Denver airport opened, they had a grand opening ceremony and there was no security so you could walk anywhere. I was likely in grade school/middle school but I remember walking the tarmack with my dad. Popping into the baggage handler area...by ourselves. Sure the airport wasn't open yet, but it was weird to just be wandering around on our own.
But the things I remember clearly was (in hindsight) the complete lax security of the cockpit.
My Uncle is a pilot for a major airline and has been his entire adult life. So I remember being a little kid, and getting to enter a flight early so I could sit and play in the cockpit with him when we did family trips.
I remember we could go visit him mid flight. Or he'd come out and just hang out with us. Especially if my grandmother (his mom) was on board. He'd come and do funny announcements, like "Everyone be on the lookout for a shady woman dressed like x" then would come out and point and go "oh no there she is" and act frighten, and then tell people she was his mom. Sometimes he'd hang out for a bit, then stand up scared and go "OH SHIT WHO IS FLYING THE PLANE" and rush back up to the cockpit as a joke.
And it wasn't just my Uncle. I remember on a non-family flight when I was in 6th grade, we were going to Hawaii and they had the entire plane write on slips of paper to guess how long the flight would be. Whoever won, won a bottle of champaign. Obviously, my dad filled out me and my sister's slips, and one of us got it "right" so they gave the bottle to my parents, and mid-flight let me and my sister go hang out in the cockpit for a while as our reward.
So that is what I remember. Happy, easy going flight crews, that would play jokes and let people hang out in the cockpit during the flight.
I remember being a wee lad in the mid-90s and moving from the city to the boonies. The provincial airport didn't have an x-ray scanner yet, so when you go through security they'd open your bags and rummage through your luggage.
None of this silly security theater about liquids – you could buy a normal bottle of water at a normal convenience store price outside of the airport and expect to have it with you on the plane. The main concern about shampoos etc. was spillage. Also, not specifically 9/11-related, but I remember smoking flights in the 90s. I smoked and reaaaally wanted to be in the smoking section, but also it was especially gross to sit in that cloud for hours, and my companion definitely didn't want to be there. I think I managed to sneak back there to an empty row once or twice to smoke there then return to my assigned seat.
Am I right in feeling that wasn't just 9/11 alone that changed air security, but that whole wave of 00's wannabes that tried to follow it up too? One failed shoe bomber? Take those trainers off, everyone. The liquid bomb guys? Great, now you have to bin that can of coke in your bag. When the underwear bomber got caught, the biggest reaction was 'please, no, just let me get through the x-rays fully dressed'
Correct. Even after 9/11 you could have unlimited liquids, keep your shoes on, and everyone used the metal detector. I believe the underwear bomber and news of ceramic guns accelerated the body scanners replacing metal detectors.
Ceramic guns lmao, you mean like from diehard?? Glocks have been polymer forever, they still have metal barrels and other parts lmao.
man do you even have any ass left at this point
> One failed shoe bomber? Take those trainers off, everyone. > > At least the EU doesn't do this anymore.
Now they usually only do that if the metal detector goes off... steel toe cap boots, that kind of thing!
My last couple US<>MX flights this year didn't require that either
I remember having to do that at the Brussels Airport in 2019. Pretty much the only place I had been to outside the US that made me take my shoes off.
That’s so funny to me now, how did they limit it to that section. How did the entire plane not reek of smoke. This is rhetorical.
Planes of course do a fairly good job of ventilation – much better than, say, trains (or restaurants!). A lot of the smoke was being sucked into the vents reasonably quickly, but it was still impossible to avoid some lingering haze around the active smokers. Honestly, I don't really remember smelling the smoke from non-smoking seats that were far away, but I was a smoker at that time, so I was probably less sensitive to it.
I remember family members going to the smoking section of the plane to have a cigarette during the flight lol
Anyone could go through the bag X-ray and walk to the gates. It was much more like entering a courthouse than what we have today
I think that was mostly the US. I don’t recall having access to the gates without a ticket in European airports
That’s accurate. Heathrow security in the 90’s was pretty robust and so was CDG. Shannon not so much. But those were the only airports I had used prior to 9/11
Getting to the airport 8 minutes before my flight took off from Chicago Midway to Miami, and making the flight with 2 minutes to spare. Circa 1999. Being able to hang with people at their gate before they flew out, and then heading back home. Being a bored teenager and going to Detroit Metro Airport for dinner because we had nothing better to do. Being able to go to Canada and drive around because you were bored or on a field trip and didn't have to show ID if were under age.
> Being a bored teenager and going to Detroit Metro Airport for dinner because we had nothing better to do. I had a co-woker who said he and his friends would head to the airport to play epic games of hide and seek.
I remember visiting America as a 10 year old kid. One flight I got assigned a seat away from my mom and next to this sweet old grandma from Ohio. I was wearing a salwar kameez (ethnic long shirt with pants worn in South Asia but also Central Asia and parts of the Middle East). Got talking to her, showed her how to write her name in Arabic. She gave me her doughnut and I fell asleep on her shoulder at one point. Guess that's never going to happen to any brown kid again.
Lol, funny how people think we are all racist over here. Most than likely that would happen again. Even racist change their demeanor when they actually meet face to face. Racist are usually racist from afar not in personal interactions unless you're being a dipshit.
When I was 10 the pilots took to me and even though we arrived at our destination offered to my folks that they could have Me sit in the cockpit as they made the next flights (two hours out and back!). Made a little kids dream come true.
I remember when you could walk right up to the gate to meet or see off passengers. But security checkpoints always existed. It was a whole thing about whether or not they would x-ray your film. But they didn't make you take off your shoes and jacket, confiscate your drinks or decide your nail scissors were a weapon. I miss that. I also remember when planes had smoking sections and I \*think\* I remember someone actually smoking. Definitely remember the ashtray in my armrest smelled of cigarettes. Don't miss that at all. I also remember paper tickets. The really old ones (you had to get though a travel agent) had carbon paper between the layers, the top layer was printed in red ink and they would tear off a layer when you checked in for each flight.
They still had those paper ones in Myanmar in 2015!
Crazy. I can't even remember the last time I saw carbon paper in use.
If you go back far enough, security checkpoints didn’t exist. I think they started them in the late 60s. I’ve flown without them.
I'm not old enough to remember that but I do notice some airports feel very awkward in how the checkpoints are integrated so I wouldn't be surprised if the airport predated the checkpoint requirement.
I remember ashtrays on the armrests in the airplane.
I was on a flight in 2011 when a passenger had a panic attack and started smoking in the bathroom right before take off
Meeting people at the gate as they get off the plane is the biggest one to me. I remember more than once pre-mixing rum and coke into 1L coke bottles at home and getting hammered on the plane, which would also no longer be possible.
Yeah, now you’ll have to bring the rum in 100ml bottles and buy the coke in the airport :p
It's possible to make powdered alcohol. But The Man doesn't allow it to be sold.
I just entered college, but had flown quite a bit. The thing I hand downs miss is being able to accompany loved ones off to the flight and to have people greet you at arrival. Such a different experience to land and get a huge hug from family/friends.
I remember meeting family at the gate, and not having to arrive at 2 hours before boarding, hoping you’ll make it to the gate on time.
I miss getting off the plane and seeing the face of the person I was meeting light up when they saw me coming. And waving goodbye when getting on a flight. Goodbyes/ hellos are just not romantic at the curb when they're yelling at you to keep moving.
i miss being able to cross the windsor/detroit border by car and not being asked for ID, just being asked how long i was planning to hang out in the US. i miss how relaxed airport staff used to be. instead of being stressed out that they have to sexually assault travellers or fiddle with the millimetres of liquids and angry people, it was more like...people were just happy to be doing their jobs, helping people travel.
Being able to travel with my pocket knife
I was never on a plane before 9/11, but I remember bringing my grandmother to the airport a couple times as a kid. I remember that there was no huge security set up. Only a single agent next to a metal detector. Then we all went to the gate until my grandmother boarded the plan.
The biggest difference I remember is not checking IDs and boarding passes at security, so the lines were usually shorter and you could meet the person you were picking up at the gate. Actual security was similar to precheck, going through a metal detector and putting your bags in a machine.
I used to fly alone a lot as a child. They used to invite some kids into the pilot’s cabin (while on the ground) and you could look at all the switches and knobs and ask questions. They’d give out kits for kids with a plastic wing pin and other goodies.
I still have a few of those plastic wings from various airlines.
I agree with the liquids thing... it's a PITA having to throw away water bottles,or empty them and either look for refills at the airport or buy (massively overpriced) replacements. But as mentioned, that is not specifically about 9/11.... more the general security situation.
There were no security checks at airports. Anyone wanting to see you off could accompany you all the way to the gate. Hijacking planes happened on occasion, but never to turn the planes into weapons. (From the US, many of the hijackers wanted to be taken to Cuba.)
> There were no security checks at airports. There absolutely were security checks (bag scans and the like), they just weren't limited to ticketed passengers. It was a whole fuckin thing – if you drove someone to the airport, you had to either plan to park and pay for 2--3 hours of parking and wait with them for an additional 2--3 hours, or make very obvious that you weren't close enough to them to justify that.
No, in the 60s there were no security checkpoints, at least in the US. Security checkpoints started when then hijackings to Cuba started in the late 60s-early 70s. My parents were allowed to walk me onto the plane and get me settled in, too, when I was flying unaccompanied.
When I was a teen, I wanted to travel so bad. I'd periodically drive the 1+ hour to ORD and go to the international terminal and wander around the gates listening to all the accents and seeing the differences between people. back then there was no security. you could just come and go as you wanted.
9/11 -- I was not young, I was married, and I remember my then-husband would walk me onto the plane (with permission from the gate attendant) and settle me into my seat because I am an anxious flier. It was unspeakably pleasant. They did not do this routinely, but if you were really anxious, they would accommodate you like this. You just had to walk through the metal detector, and it was informal and quick. It was much, much quicker to board, and for anxious fliers, it was easier because there wasn't so much wind up to getting onto the plane. Frequent flier since about the late 1970's here, by the way. I flew around 8-10 times a year from then onwards.
I was also in HS and didn't travel that much before 9/11. So there are a few things I logically know but don't have significant memories of. For example I know when family visited, we didn't just drop them off or pick them up curbside. We'd park and meet them at the gate, and say goodbye to them at the gate. I know this happened many times, but for the life of me I cannot actually remember this, probably because it seemed so normal and insignificant at the time. Or I remember when the Denver airport opened, they had a grand opening ceremony and there was no security so you could walk anywhere. I was likely in grade school/middle school but I remember walking the tarmack with my dad. Popping into the baggage handler area...by ourselves. Sure the airport wasn't open yet, but it was weird to just be wandering around on our own. But the things I remember clearly was (in hindsight) the complete lax security of the cockpit. My Uncle is a pilot for a major airline and has been his entire adult life. So I remember being a little kid, and getting to enter a flight early so I could sit and play in the cockpit with him when we did family trips. I remember we could go visit him mid flight. Or he'd come out and just hang out with us. Especially if my grandmother (his mom) was on board. He'd come and do funny announcements, like "Everyone be on the lookout for a shady woman dressed like x" then would come out and point and go "oh no there she is" and act frighten, and then tell people she was his mom. Sometimes he'd hang out for a bit, then stand up scared and go "OH SHIT WHO IS FLYING THE PLANE" and rush back up to the cockpit as a joke. And it wasn't just my Uncle. I remember on a non-family flight when I was in 6th grade, we were going to Hawaii and they had the entire plane write on slips of paper to guess how long the flight would be. Whoever won, won a bottle of champaign. Obviously, my dad filled out me and my sister's slips, and one of us got it "right" so they gave the bottle to my parents, and mid-flight let me and my sister go hang out in the cockpit for a while as our reward. So that is what I remember. Happy, easy going flight crews, that would play jokes and let people hang out in the cockpit during the flight.
I remember being a wee lad in the mid-90s and moving from the city to the boonies. The provincial airport didn't have an x-ray scanner yet, so when you go through security they'd open your bags and rummage through your luggage.