Sporran object

While I was returning from a remembrance service to commemorate my fellow Falklands veterans, an unusual pattern appeared on my X-rayed luggage at Mount Pleasant Airport (bristling with Typhoons and surface-to-air missiles in case Argentina fancies a rematch).

I was asked by a very polite female wearing RAF khaki to look at the scan and explain what the strange looking object was. I had absolutely no idea but it looked like an ornately fashioned curved blade.

Was the bomb disposal called? No. Was the airport evacuated? No.

Was the whole airport locked down for three hours turning already hard-pressed commuters’ lives upside down? No.

I was asked to open the suitcase and, hey presto, the mystery was solved.

The Celtic pattern on my sealskin sporran had been highlighted on the scanner and I joked (another thing you don’t do at airports nowadays) that if they had confiscated it there would have been a diplomatic incident.

The whole “security scare” lasted three minutes and a common-sense decision meant that everyone could prepare for a 20-hour journey without the constant headlines of terrorism screaming in their ears.

Wouldn’t it be great if the mushrooming security apparatus at Edinburgh Airport could have had the same common sense?

David Cruickshanks

Forth Street

Dunfermline