While passing through Airport Security in Philadelphia Airport on 31 May 2007, we were stopped because my two children - aged 2 and 5 - were carrying water bottles - which is okay - with water in it, which was not okay.  Everybody was very polite - they called me Sir and everything - but I could not persuade them to let go.  My children and I offered to drink the water but no sir, I had to go back in the lounge with the water bottles, find a garbage can, empty the bottles and then come back, stand in the long queue again with empty bottles, take off my shoes once again, walk through metal detectors etc etc before we were allowed to proceed to the gate and fly.  If you think that is funny, more follows....

On 10 June 2007, we were again stopped at London Heathrow.  This time the problem was a bottle with less 50 ml of baby massage oil in it.  My two year old sometimes develops an allergic rash and applying the oil helps.  Imagine nine hours in a flight with your two old screaming because of an allergic rash. My wife and I pointed out that the board outside the security gate said that liquids were allowed provided they were 100 ml or less. Accordingly we had this new bottle, from which we had thrown out part of the oil so that it was less than 100 ml.  So please may we go through.  No sir, the security guard would not let us through - she said that liquids are allowed in bottles of 100 ml or less whereas the offending bottle was for 200 ml size even though the liquid was less than quarter full in the bottle (less than 50 ml).  I was speechless - if the bottle was empty, any size was allowed.  But if the bottle had some liquid in it, then it can only be a bottle of less than 100 ml in size irrespective of whether the liquid was full or partly full!  So we applied some of the oil on my child as a preventive measure and allowed the security guard to take the bottle away.  Thankfully  nothing the airline served gave her an allergy!

The only word to describe Airport Security is Asinine!  What I would be curious to know is the security risks involved in carrying liquids in bottles that are larger than 100 ml in size.  I think the security guard was misinterpreting the rule when she says that the bottle has to be small and the amount of liquid is immaterial - may be I am wrong.  Does anybody know anything better? 

Anyway my wife has now found a nice 75 ml bottle in which we will carry the massage oil in the future.