No32 Mk3 in hand baggage..

[ArtioZen]

I just flew out of Manchester with a very nice, new to me N032 Mk3 secured in its tin and wrapped in clothes in my carry-on backpack...or so i thought!!

Having progressed to the security check and having sent bags to the hold just within weight limits I was pretty happy.. I had also got through the magic gate without a beep and frisk:)

My backpack though was selected for hand inspection...a nice young lady technician was interested in the tin contents, so out it came - she fumbled with it for a while then asked me to open it and also what what it was - so I said "its a telescope for a rifle", even at the "R" word she recoiled...off to the team supervisor for reference (escalation).

So I stood without my wallet and belt (still in the inspection box with the back pack) and watched it go around the room to increasingly older and better dressed supervisors - the last of which wanted to fill me in on what was going on...

He indicated that my backpack, wallet and belt could come back to me and that I was free to take a seat while he called the police to review this "gun part" - obviously a malicous and evil device. So I sat and caught a few of the words exchanged with PC plod - "clearly not a controlled gun part", "no hes not threatening in any way", "its quite heavy".

After a while he returns a bit miffed that the Police did not want to see such a device in person and it was still up to him..so he lays down the good news and bad news...it could go on the plane with me, but not in the cabin because it is heavy and I could bash somebody on the head with it (tennis rackets are not allowed in the cabin either). So I indicated that it is a valuable antique telescope and that it would not be used for bashing anything and is no more than a half a pair of binoculars in a tin.

I was given a very courteous apologetic personal tour of all the behind the security area pathways to get back to baggage check and 6 airline reps helping to tag my backpack for hand loading - complete with fragile stickers that were too fragile to remove from their backing :) None of the airline crew were too concerned about the mystery object, or being bashed on the head.

It was waiting for me at me destination as expected, just thought I would share the story of its journey for smiles. I was astonished at the reaction of the Brit general public to R,G, F and W words throughout my whole trip - things have changed :/

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