Turban searches delay flight in Brisbane

Brisbane Airport has defended the action of security officers when they demanded 13 Sikh community members remove their turbans and a woman take off her face veil.
The search on Saturday caused a bottleneck at a security checkpoint and delayed at least one international flight, reports said today.
Brisbane Airport spokesman Jim Carden said it was not unusual for security officers to direct people to remove headgear.
"Those regulations have been in place about 12 years," Mr Carden said.
They applied at all Australian airports to any headgear, including baseball caps, rastafarian scarves, Jewish yarmulke, Emirates' cabin crew headgear and pilots' caps, he said.
If a passenger walking through security set off the alarm, a hand-held wand was passed over them to check for prohibited objects.
"But if the screening authority is still not satisfied that the screening has still not been completed, that passenger may be asked to remove that headgear - that has always been the case," he said.
26/02/08 AAP/The Age, Australia

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, Foreign Feb 2008, Safety Feb 2008