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In major airports, full service restaurants are increasingly found within the secure area. Because of security, some have to limit their menu to foods that can be eaten without using a knife.
In other airport restaurants, customers are still given metal knives, even steak knives, with their meals.
This means that someone could take a knife from the restaurant and take it on an airplane without getting caught. In these restaurants, the wait staff are supposed to alert security if they notice a knife missing. However, they are likely to not notice the missing knife.
My solution is that to track the knives with electronic article surveillance tags, which are used in retail stores to prevent shoplifting. The tags would set off an alarm if a knife was taken out of the restaurant. This should be relatively inexpensive because many products have a disposable electronic tag attatched to the package that is deactivated at the register. The tags used on the knives would not be deactivated. For security, they could be inside the knife handle. Alternatively, they could be attatched to the outside of the handle and covered with protective plastic.
Also, this could be used for the chef's knives to replace the current methods of chaining them to the counter or requiring the staff to count them.
Terminal Cornucopia
http://fort.ninja/ Making weapons from stuff available in the airport. Scroll down to Current Projects. [notexactly, Jan 18 2016]
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or chain them to the table. |
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Just go all-Asian and it's just chopsticks. |
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A chopstick, held threateningly against the ear or
eye, is as effective as a knife. So, for that matter, is
a pencil. |
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// The vast majority of restaurant steak knives I've seen are far too dull to be used as a weapon.// I don't know about the knives they give to customers, but I assure you that there are plenty of sharp knives past security. Back when I worked at an airport Starbucks we lost at least a knife a week. |
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I'm still of the "issue every passenger a knife" school.
Practically speaking, no one will ever be able to
hijack a plane with a knife ever again, since everyone
is aware of the possible consequences, and a knife
user just isn't that hard to take down. |
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That's one of the more difficult object holders to take down. |
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//I've spoken about this issue on another post quite recently. The vast majority of restaurant steak knives I've seen are far too dull to be used as a weapon. I'd like to see a photo of such a knife, behind the airport security checkpoint, next to an actual dinner plate with the airport visible in the background.// |
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If you currently google for "airport steak knife" you will find a long list of blog posts generally falling into two categories:
1) People observing that the steak knives available after security are potentially a weapon, and
2) People peeved at not being able to cut their steak in the airport restaurant with provided cutlery. |
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From this, I infer that (in accordance to the idea's second paragraph) airports differ on this; YMMV. |
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Unfortunately, looking at the first few pages of google image results give no photos with the rigorous requirements stated. That doesn't really surprise me though - it's not an obvious thing to record. Also I guess most people would feel a bit foolish or be concerned as to looking suspicious doing so. |
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I'm not actually clear why you need to see a plate in the photo - it makes it harder to get under some circumstances. Also, clearly showing an airport might be harder than you think - the relevant part of an airport is hard to distinguish from shopping centre. Actually carrying knives off to a place which is clearly airport, the boarding gate - and posing with it for photos - would be a big personal risk. |
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From Frank Herbert's "Dune", via Duncan Idaho... |
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"Killing with the point lacks artistry, but don't let that hold your hand when the opening presents itself." |
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Of course if somebody really wanted to hijack a plane, they could just bribe the TSA agents with some crack. |
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The arm of a TSA agent, removed suddenly from its
normal location, is potentially a club-like weapon -
while making it difficult for the agent to shield
itself
on the side from which it was detached. |
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The entire agent would also make a substantial
club,
were it not so soft and heavy. Its use would likely
be
limited to smothering effects. |
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Oh, and to the idea: my cousin worked as an
airline stewardess (this was back in the mid-'50s,
so they weren't FAs yet). She and her fellow
stewardesses were having dinner at an airport
restaurant, when the topic of her recent
tonsillectomy came up, and for some reason,
everybody wanted to see. So, using a fork handle
as a tongue-depressor, she was showing the gory
details; they all started laughing, my cuz loses her
grip on the fork and swallows it. |
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She calls the local hospital, where a nurse, and
then a doctor, try to convince her she could not
have done such a thing; finally the doctor suggests
she come in for an x-ray to prove to her that she
didn't actually swallow a fork. |
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Well, a silver fork shows up *really well* in an x-ray,
even when the x-ray is reproduced in a
newspaper, which it was the next day. |
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The next time she and her crew went to that
restaurant, the staff had been notified in advance
and set her a special place at the table - with yard-
long ribbons tied to all the silverware. |
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My friend's a pilot, they don't let him take nail
clippers on board the aircraft as they could be an
offensive weapon. The TSA apparently don't realize
that as a pilot, he really doesn't need an offensive
weapon to gain access to the cockpit and control of
the aircraft, and that should the need for an
offensive weapon arise, there's a fire axe in there
with him. |
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//// People observing that the steak knives available
after security are potentially a weapon//// |
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//These are likely the same sort of people who
considered a nail clipper to be a potential weapon
...// |
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It's sort of the point that the people fretting about
nail clippers are *not* worrying about the knives. |
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Knives? Nail clippers? Feh. The unassisted human hand can reliably deliver a lethal blow, given sufficient training. |
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This is not about killing. It is about _threatening_ to kill, for which even the bluntest of knives is far more effective than the hands of a trained martial artist. |
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By the way, welcome to the Halfbakery! |
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Your use of proper grammar, spelling, and syntax (not
to mention paragraph breaks) doubtless lulled the
others into assuming you must be one of the less
prolific
regulars. That's a good thingkeep it up. |
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a couple superfluous commas maybe. |
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Eminently practical and practicable: bun anways [+] |
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Here's my bun as well. The very same subject came up last
fall when my Dad and I visited a concourse sports bar in
Philly and were handed decently sharp steak knives from a
big bin under the hostess' station. |
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and yet the steak knife murder rate remains stubbornly low. Getting a weapon on a plane is a simple black bag job, any weapon. Security is to make you the consumer piss your pants with how safe you are, because the big men with the machines and the guns are there. Any sensible person realizes that the airport itself is as porous as your average supermarket. I can't help you however, my name is flagged. I cant go anywhere without a search and a swabbing. {f.y.i. fuck you TSA} |
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//...the relevant part of the airport is hard to distinguish from shopping centre.// The airport restaurants I have seen had windows looking out onto the ramp/tarmac where you could see planes from the restaurant. |
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