an anecdote--Im pretty certain Ive written of this before, but post 9/11, flew to NY for my first time there. At Mtl airport, super strict stuff, take shoes off twice, at security and before boarding plane, security guys going through our camera bags twice (at security and before plane)--arrive in NY, arrive in hotel and go through camera bags to go over stuff for next day shoot and lo and behold, in one of the bags there was a leatherman tool that the guy I was working for had forgotten to take out--with a knife on it as well......so all those checks, and for some reason, the tool didnt get spotted with two personal hand checks.

kinda goofy, but true.

worst part was that on the way back, in the rush it got forgotten again, and yes, overlooked again by security.

just goes to show that human error and lapses are a real part of airport security, or can be in any case. I can only surmise that in this case, the camera bags were full of weird stuff to the security guys that they'd never seen before, so they were distracted by the odd shaped medium format cameras and film backs, so much they missed the one thing that could have been dangerous.

I somehow doubt that this could be replicated again. Happenstance combined with smoke and mirrors.