PLANE STUPID
Airport security bans mother’s tiny pendant charm in case it is mistaken for a real gun
‘Idiocy added insult to injury’
A NECKLACE with an inch-long gun pendant was confiscated at an airport after security staff claimed it could be mistaken for a real weapon.
Former police officer Claire Sharp was wearing the jewellery, a present from her late husband, as she passed through Stansted airport.
Mrs Sharp was stunned when she was informed it was ‘too dangerous’, and would have to either be posted to her at her expense or held by security until she returned from Italy.
She reluctantly opted for the second option – only to be told there was an £8 charge at lost property services when she got back three days later.
The former Special Branch officer, 46, said: ‘I’ve worn that necklace having gone through security at Westminster Abbey to go to the Metropolitan Police Christmas carol service and have been there alongside dignitaries, high-ranking police officers and the Home Secretary, with no problem whatsoever.
‘The lack of common sense displayed at Stansted was astounding. To be charged £8 for the privilege of their idiocy just added insult to injury.’
Mrs Sharp, who was with her second husband Lee, a sergeant in the Met Police, added: ‘We were travelling with our 12-year- old daughter who was distressed because I was crying.
‘It was an awful start to what was supposed to be a nice weekend away.’
The mother of three, who is now a company director for her own dog food company, was searched by a female security officer at the airport on Friday.
‘She saw my necklace and said,
“This might be a problem”,’ she said. ‘She then called over a male officer who asked me to take it off so he could look at it. I explained it was just a charm, that it had been bought for me by my late husband, and that it had been through airport security on loads of occasions – including Stansted. He then took it off to ask his supervisor and came back saying it would need to be confiscated as it was an imitation firearm.’
Mrs Sharp’s first husband, Nigel Greenwood, died from a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 32.
The gold pendant symbolised their shared love of shooting, making it all the more ‘traumatic’ when it was taken away.
Mrs Sharp, of Swanley, Kent, added: ‘I flew from Gatwick to Iceland wearing it, with no issue. I’d been to Moscow where they’re mad on security and they had no issue with my necklace.’
Stansted insisted that the right decision had been made.
A spokesman said: ‘Under Civil Aviation Authority regulations, any novelty items, replicas and imitation firearms capable of being mistaken for real weapons will be deemed unsuitable for carriage and reasonably would be confiscated.’