Brits fly the 'honor' system

Posted by John Crewdson at 1:16 pm CDT

Dispatches from the front lines of the War on Terror: For those of you lucky enough not to have been flying from London to Washington, D.C. on September 10, count your blessings.

London's Heathrow Airport was in full-alert mode, which meant two separate screenings--shoes off, laptops out, metal detectors, the works--before finally reaching one's departing flight. On top of this, passengers were limited to a single, really, really small carry-on bag, which resulted in many people clutching their laptops in their hands after being forced to check their now-oversized laptop carry-on bags. (The reason for this, by the way, was unclear, since there was tons of unused space under the seats and in the overhead compartments of my Boeing 777).

The most recent threat, and the principal reason for the super-heightened security, apart from the impending 9/11 anniversary, was the arrest, on August 10, of a couple dozen London-area residents suspected of planning to smuggle liquids aboard airliners headed for the U.S. and then combining them to produce a powerful explosive.

From that moment, the carrying of liquids on board airplanes was forbidden--not including baby formula, prescription medicines and a few other exceptions. But while we have x-ray machines for baggage and metal detectors for guns and knives, the liquid detector has yet to be invented. So the Heathrow screeners were reduced to asking each departing passenger, "Any liquids?" As each passenger answered "No," he or she was allowed to saunter aboard the airplane. No pat-downs, or any other effort to make sure the passenger's pockets weren't filled with vials of nitroglycerine. What it all came down to, in the end, was the honor system.

Very British, but not necessarily the most reassuring anti-terrorism measure so far invented.