As the popular saying goes, there truly is no better time to close the barn door than after the horse has escaped… OK, it does not quite fit here, as you will see, but still I was reminded of that saying when I just passed security in Munich Airport’s Terminal 2. Just the very Terminal that was evacuated less than a week ago following a security scare that luckily turned out to be a false alarm (as they usually do). In that particular case, a laptop apparently triggered an explosives detector, but the owner of the computer disappeared, with the laptop in question, while the results from a wipedown were being evaluated. Following that, with quite a delay however, the complete terminal was evacuated. It turned out that everything was perfectly harmless, and the traveler in question probably just did not understand the security screeners’ instructions to wait for the test results… As far as I heard, there is video footage showing him wandering around the duty free shops, and then leaving the terminal with all others once the evacuation was started. Apparently he later passed security without any problems. There has been an intense debate about what all went wrong… Such as loosing track of the guy in the first place. I assume the security screeners here in Munich had to endure quite a dressing down. As a consequence, they are now extra thorough, and keeping a very close eye on laptops in particular. There is also a much increased police presence after security, to prevent anyone from leaving the area unnoticed. Luckily, my way through security was still quite fast and without trouble… I hope things stay that way, with all the new measures being discussed at present.
Now I’m waiting for my flight to Paris, which is up to now still listed as “on time”… Lets see how this develops, it has been snowing quite heavily in Munich earlier today, and quite a few flights are delayed or canceled. Hopefully I’m off soon, to attend the ILD meeting in Paris, where we’ll discuss plans to move towards a complete detector design for the International Linear Collider, to be fully worked out over the next two years.
