Heathrow scraps liquid container limit • Hacker News Board

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#201

Post by bawolff » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:20 AM UTC

jandrewrogers wrote: post #71

This just adds confusion as to the purpose of all this. The motivation behind the liquid limits is that there are extremely powerful explosives that are stable water-like liquids. Average people have never heard of them because they aren’t in popular lore. There has never been an industrial or military use, solids are simpler. Nonetheless, these explosives are easily accessible to a knowledgeable chemist like me. The…

I thought the point of replacing all the xray scanners with CT scanners was to be able to detect this sort of thing?

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#202

Post by wickedsight » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #148

jandrewrogers wrote: post #71

This just adds confusion as to the purpose of all this. The motivation behind the liquid limits is that there are extremely powerful explosives that are stable water-like liquids. Average people have never heard of them because they aren’t in popular lore. There has never been an industrial or military use, solids are simpler. Nonetheless, these explosives are easily accessible to a knowledgeable chemist like me. The…

It's about making people feel safe. We're not rational beings, so what do you do about an irrational fear? You invent a magical thing that protects from that irrational fear. You're orders of magnitude more likely to die in a road accident, but people don't fear that. They fear terrorist attacks far more. You can't protect against an opponent who's motivated to learn the inherent vulnerabilities of our systems, many…

> It's about making people feel safe.

My guess it's more about being able to say: 'We did everything we could.' If someone does end up getting a bomb on board. If they didn't do this, everyone would be angry and headlines would be asking: 'Why was nothing put in place to prevent this?'

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#203

Post by troupo » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #148

jandrewrogers wrote: post #71

This just adds confusion as to the purpose of all this. The motivation behind the liquid limits is that there are extremely powerful explosives that are stable water-like liquids. Average people have never heard of them because they aren’t in popular lore. There has never been an industrial or military use, solids are simpler. Nonetheless, these explosives are easily accessible to a knowledgeable chemist like me. The…

It's about making people feel safe. We're not rational beings, so what do you do about an irrational fear? You invent a magical thing that protects from that irrational fear. You're orders of magnitude more likely to die in a road accident, but people don't fear that. They fear terrorist attacks far more. You can't protect against an opponent who's motivated to learn the inherent vulnerabilities of our systems, many…

> You can't protect against an opponent who's motivated to learn the inherent vulnerabilities of our systems, many of which can't be protected against due to the laws of physics and practicality

Ah yes, the insidious opponent who learns the inherent vulnerability of ... huge crowds gathering before hand baggage screenings and TSA patdowns.

And these crowds are only there only due to a permanent immovable physical fixture of ... completely artificial barriers that fail to prevent anything 90-95% of the time.

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#204

Post by nottorp » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:23 AM UTC

Okay but for personal toiletry stuff you need the rule scrapped at both ends of your trip.

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#205

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:26 AM UTC

darth_avocado wrote: post #32

jbellis wrote: post #2

Not because of a sudden outbreak of sanity, but because they have CT scanners now.

3-1-1 is rarely enforced. I always got confused why the 100ml limit existed, since I could just take multiple bottles of 100ml of whatever I wanted and it was okay. Then I realized that technically I only could take 3 bottles but I’ve been getting away with more for decades.

[deleted]

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#206

Post by troupo » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:27 AM UTC

closewith wrote: post #164

chipsrafferty wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also you can fill up a water bottle after security. Wouldn't it be fairly easy to make a pen or similar innocuous item out of sodium, and drop it in a bottle of water to make an explosion? My point is that security can never be strict enough to catch someone who's truly motivated and funded, without making it impossible to admit people at a reasonable pace, and the current rules don't really help with that except…

> My point is that security can never be strict enough to catch someone who's truly motivated and funded, without making it impossible to admit people at a reasonable pace, and the current rules don't really help with that except for cutting down on the riff raff terrorists. This is the classic HN developer arrogance and oversimplification, but let's accept this as true for argument's sake. It turns out that "riff ra…

> The existence of master locksmiths (and door breaching charges) doesn't mean you shouldn't lock your door at night.

The TSA checkpoints are the equivalent of moving all your belongings onto the lawn, and then locking the door.

Why bother with the plane when now you have potentialy a magnitude more people in the queue to TSA?

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#207

Post by troupo » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:28 AM UTC

7e wrote: post #180

jandrewrogers wrote: post #71

This just adds confusion as to the purpose of all this. The motivation behind the liquid limits is that there are extremely powerful explosives that are stable water-like liquids. Average people have never heard of them because they aren’t in popular lore. There has never been an industrial or military use, solids are simpler. Nonetheless, these explosives are easily accessible to a knowledgeable chemist like me. The…

It's obvious. The harder you make it to down or hijack a plane, the fewer downed planes you will see. It didn't have to be perfect to prevent and deter. Some security is better than no security. If you had no security at all you would see planes go down all the time. And it wouldn't surprise me if some of the detection technology were classified. It would not be "great" if governments were more open about their detec…

> The harder you make it to down or hijack a plane, the fewer downed planes you will see.

You know that TSA fails in 90-95% of cases and that crowds before it are a much jucier target?

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#208

Post by grepfru_it » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:28 AM UTC

JasonADrury wrote: post #165

edm0nd wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. In the US, the TSA is just a government jobs program for the lowly skilled or unskilled. It's all security theater. TSA Chief Out After Agents Fail 95 Percent of Airport Breach Tests "In one case, an alarm sounded, but even during a pat-down, the screening officer failed to detect a fake plastic explosive taped to an undercover agent's back. In all, so-called "Red Teams" of Homeland Security agents posing as…

I routinely conceal large bottles of liquids on my person while going through airport security. I've probably gone through airport security in various places with a 1.5L bottle of water more than a hundred times now. Haven't been caught once, although of course the US-style scanners could presumably defeat this. Same with hot sauces, perfume and the occasional bottles of wine. I really don't like to travel with a che…

A plastic water bottle isn’t triggering a tsa pre check metal detector. I’m totally doing this next trip

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#209

Post by omnicognate » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:30 AM UTC

jandrewrogers wrote: post #71

This just adds confusion as to the purpose of all this. The motivation behind the liquid limits is that there are extremely powerful explosives that are stable water-like liquids. Average people have never heard of them because they aren’t in popular lore. There has never been an industrial or military use, solids are simpler. Nonetheless, these explosives are easily accessible to a knowledgeable chemist like me. The…

> Average people have never heard of them because they aren’t in popular lore.

Everything I know about liquid explosives I learned from Die Hard 3.

Re: Heathrow scraps liquid container limit

#210

Post by hdgvhicv » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 7:31 AM UTC

Flew through Heathrow a few months ago. Signs flashing on the screens specifically saying laptops must be removed, security guys yelling “don’t remove laptops”