How I was taken for a terrorist by United Airlines

This article originally appeared in the Spectator in 1991

You are a Spectator reader, an honest, law-abiding, professional with moderate political views. You think you don’t look like a terrorist. Think again.

I arrived at Heathrow airport with a good 50 minutes to spare before my scheduled flight to Berlin was due to leave. I was flying there with United Airlines, and going on with British Airways to Moscow to attend an Aspen Institute conference on behalf of the Times. United Airlines took over PanAm’s routes from Heathrow last month. Presumably somewhat sensitive, after Lockerbie, about inheriting PanAm’s security reputation along with its routes, the airline runs its own security screening, through which all passengers have to pass before they can check in.

Each is interviewed at a separate desk by an official wearing a UA badge. Most are asked the usual cursory questions: Did you pack your own bag? Has no one else touched it or given you presents to take with you? Has it been with you all the time? Rather as seasoned travellers become blasé about the safety announcements on planes, I tend to reply, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ in a slightly bored way, hoping to get the formalities over as quickly as possible.