Participating in the worldwide task of protecting flyers from implausible security risks, screeners at an Auckland airport denied a diabetic man the right to take his clearly labeled insulin on a plane with him. Thank goodness all the other passengers were spared the risk of a man preventing himself from suffering severe medical problems.
Mr Russell said check-in staff at Auckland Airport told him he could not take his medication on board because it was dangerous.
When flight crews found out that Mr. Russell was having medical problems but that he had been denied the right to take his medicine on the plane with him, they were upset with airport screeners and worked to give him what care they could.
He started feeling ill during the flight last month and called a flight attendant.
“They asked where the insulin was, and they weren’t very happy when they found out I wasn’t allowed to bring it on board.”
Mr Russell praised cabin crew who tried to keep him conscious and gave him oxygen until they arrived in Christchurch.
But he fell into a coma shortly before the aircraft landed and spent two weeks in Christchurch Hospital.
But at least airline officials apologized
Qantas yesterday apologised to Tui Peter Russell, who had a severe attack on the plane and was in hospital for two weeks.
I just wonder how many times this sort of thing has to happen before the sheep who support the current anti-liquid, anti-traveller, screw-safety-but-put-on-a-good-show for folks-who-don’t-realize-this-is-not-security “security” will accept that the false positive rate for this security method exceeds the old way’s false-negative rate by such a huge margin that we are likely to lose more lives to this than to actual attacks. I don’t understand how people can support putting human lives at risk every day because doing so might (but probably won’t) prevent an attack every few years (or hell, let’s say every few months, which still leaves the lives risked far worse with current security than with old security).
The story isn’t totally negative, though.
Mr Russell said Qantas had offered him a free return flight from Auckland to Christchurch, but he also wanted help from the airline to recover $500 in hospital and medication bills.
[tags]Liquid security threat causes diabetic to suffer coma, Thanks for keeping the water off the plane – I’ll fly again after I get out of the hospital[/tags]
 
