Airline safety regulations which I’d like to see changed

 Hello. My name is Ami. I’m a high school student from Japan. This is my first time posting on the blog. Today I’m going to talk about Airline safety regulations which I’d like to see changed. 

 When I was 11, I went to UK with my mom. That was my first travel overseas. We visited many places during our 2-weeks stay. It wasn’t only interesting but also a big challenge to be in a foreign country, even though my mother did  the most of communication with others in English. So I was tired out on the last day of our stay. We desperately missed our home town and Japanese rice.

On the way to Japan at Heathrow Airport, we had to go through the metal detector as usual. The gate that rises in front of me was fearsome enough to be seemed nervous. My mom tried to calm me down and said ‘ It will be fine. I’ll wait you on the other side of the gate.’. Then she passed it without any problem. After that, it was my turn. I did deep breath and stepped in to the detector.

‘ Beep... Beep… Beeeeeeeeeep…!’ 

The sound was terrible enough to make my head panic. Even that happened because  I forgot taking off my belt and a whistle made of metal. I gave the guards the things to scan. But the situation wasn’t end then. They said that my whistle looked like a bullet. So it had to be scanned at least three times and I needed to explain what it was in English. Obviously it was almost impossible for a little child to shoot people without a gun. However the guards said that my mom could force me to carry a bullet. So I wasn’t able to ask my mom help with communicating. At last, they found that ‘the bullet’ was actually a whistle, and I could meet my mother again. That was the scariest thing I’ve experienced in UK.

 I think the safety regulations at an airport are applied to strictly. The guards didn’t need to spend 15 minutes for investigating a foreign girl and a whistle. Actually some of them looked as if they knew it wasn’t necessary but they had to do their duty. I think it was possible for them to proof I was clear with their experience. Following the rules was their only choice, since they were staffs of the airport even though they were experts with a long time experience. I think the rules should let the workers to make more flexible decisions. I understand the importance of keeping passenger’s safety. But depending on a machine isn’t only way to keep ‘evidence-based safety’.