Simon Perry froze a can of Diet Coke solid and took it through security at London’s Heathrow Airport to see whether he could find a loophole in the “no liquids” rule.
But the intransigent managing aviation security dramaturge on duty still refused to let him take it through the checkpoint, stating that “the government does not classify [ice] as a solid.”
“I was planning on just leaving it in the bag. They ban liquids so no need to declare it”, Simon said, “However, on putting my bag on the security conveyor I was asked ‘any liquids, any drinks?’ so I had to declare it of course. I said something like ‘no liquids, but a drink in solid form’, which seemed to confuse [the security person] and he asked me what I was talking about. I showed him the frozen drink.”
I asked Simon if he was worried about getting arrested at any point – as after all – airport security aren’t particularly well known for their sense of humour. “I thought it very unlikely – people must accidentally bring drinks in all the time and it’s a coke, not a threat, and I was following all of the published rules.”
Sadly though, it turned out that there would be no Diet Coke Break at 30,000 feet unless Simon was willing to splash out in the Duty Free:
“He told me that it wasn’t allowed so I asked under what grounds, given it is not a liquid. When he said I couldn’t take it I asked if he knew that for sure or just assumed. He grabbed his supervisor and the supervisor told me that ‘the government does not classify that as a solid’. I decided to leave it at that point. I expect they’re probably wrong to take it from me. They’d probably not seen it before, didn’t know the rules, and being a bit of an eccentric request, decided to act on the side of caution. They didn’t spend the time to look it up.”
What Happens If You Take Frozen Liquids Through Airport Security [James O Malley/Gizmodo]