I took a 9-inch knife on to my holiday plane

Sep 5 2007 By Catherine Lillington

It wasn't until he arrived in his hotel room in Cyprus that Eric Spears realised the blade was even in his bag.

The 58-year-old, from Bordesley Green, uses the lock knife for his job in the events industry where he often has to cut through cable ties to put signs up.

He said: "I'm shocked the knife went through. Some alarm bells should have gone off somewhere. I want to know how the X-ray machine didn't pick up a hardened steel knife.

"I could have been anybody. If that can go through the X-ray what's to stop a terrorist putting four or fives knives at the bottom of a bag?

"If you're not going to pick one knife up, somebody could go through with half a dozen."

Eric had also packed food, earphones and some discs and a DVD player in the leather bag for the flight from Birmingham International on August 19.

He added: "I had worked on the Royal Show perhaps a week or so before and it was purely accidental the knife was still in the bag. I know what not to take on a plane. If it had been detected I'd have left it there and apologised straight away."

A spokeswoman for the airport said she couldn't say how the knife had got through security checks but that passengers pass through many layers of security.

She added: "The aviation industry recognises the strength of its security rests in a multi-layered approach. No one process is absolutely critical.

"That's why, even once passengers board an aircraft, there are further measures to limit activities of passengers and in particular to prevent unauthorised persons reaching the flight deck.

"As part of a complex security process, every year millions of items of clothing and personal effects are scanned, searched and examined as passengers pass through the airport."