Shanghai's two airports have stepped up the security level to carry out more thorough and detailed inspections of luggage after the country foiled an alleged terror attack on a China Southern Airlines flight last week.
It will now take longer for passengers at both Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao Airport to pass security checks as staff are required to open each bottle of liquid passengers have to check the smell and color.
The security inspection now doubles to almost 40 seconds for every passenger at Hongqiao Airport, which mostly handles domestic flights.
The tighter security control came just days after two terror suspects were caught on a passenger plane flying from Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Beijing on Friday.
The suspects, with one Uygur girl around 18 to 19, allegedly had planned to ignite gasoline that they smuggled onboard the China Southern Airlines flight, according to previous reports.
The plane made an emergency landing in Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province, and no passenger or crew was injured in the foiled terrorist attack.
The General Administration of Aviation soon issued a new regulation, saying that passengers are not allowed to bring any liquids onboard.
Passengers can send their applications to air companies if they need to feed milk to babies and the flight crew will prepare for the milk.
Liquid drugs are also banned, according to the administration's new regulation. Passengers can submit prescriptions and their drugs to security officers who will later send the drugs to flight crew after inspection, the report added.
Air carriers will also halt the transport of dangerous goods until the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics.
(Shanghai Daily, March 13, 2008)