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Steve Jobs Tries To Sneak Shurikens On a Plane
An anonymous reader writes "Steve Jobs, while on a family vacation to Japan in July, picked himself up some Shuriken, otherwise known as Ninja throwing stars, as a souvenir. In his wisdom he decided to put them in his carry on luggage for the return journey. As it was a private plane he probably thought there would be no issue, but he was wrong. Even private plane passengers have to have all their baggage scanned, and the throwing stars were detected and deemed a hazard. It's alleged that Jobs argued that he could take them on the plane as no one could steal them on his private jet and use them. Security at the airport disagreed and demanded he remove the stars. Jobs, clearly angry at losing his throwing weapons, stated he would not be returning to the country." Undoubtedly this is part of the iNinja project.
“Steve did visit Japan this summer for a vacation in Kyoto, but the incidents described at the airport are pure fiction. Steve had a great time and hopes to visit Japan again soon.”
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100914/qotd-the-ninja-throwing-stars-they%E2%80%99re-for-my-friend-larry-ellison/
Kansai is a public airport, and the spokesman from Kansai (quoted in the article), said "The airport doesn’t have separate boarding arrangements for private- jet users", so i don't see why Jobs was surprised.
Since it's a public screening point (where presumably the private jet passengers can mix with the regular commercial passengers after screening), they have to apply the same security restrictions to all passengers. Otherwise anyone who wants to get a bomb on a public plane would just charter a private jet, go through security with his bomb, then hand it off to someone in the public terminal.
I'm sure that if he really cared about the items, he could have arranged to have them sent to his plane as checked luggage (it's not as if his private jet was going to leave without him), or he could have found someone willing to mail them to him. Heck, he could have found an apple fan-boy in line in the terminal who would have checked them and mailed them to him from the USA for the chance to shake his hand.
I just want to clarify that this is absolutely *not* how things work in the United States.
In the US, if you're flying privately, you walk through the lobby of whatever FBO (Which is a company that provides fuel, a pilot lounge, catering, etc.) your plane is parked at, smile at the person behind the desk, get on your plane, and leave.
Jobs was right to think that he could get on the plane with his stars because, usually, he would be able to.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
Way to be timely Slashdot - AppleInsider has already reported that the story is bunk. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/14/steve_jobs_prevented_from_bringing_throwing_stars_on_private_jet_report.html
And then he threw a Shuriken at the press, just to make the point clear . . .
Jobs with shiriken; Balmer with chairs . . . who wins . . .?
We do.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
IIRC, generally the same place you check-in with the airport to let them know you are there. The plane still gets assigned a "gate" even if that gate is simply a virtual tarmac parking location, so it can be sent along with a gent on a luggage trolly.
I've flown on private jets many times. Perhaps at larger airports, but when I went I was never searched, or had any of my luggage inspected. I walked up to the terminal, waved to the pilot, and walked onto the plane. If I was going on a trip longer than a few days, he would load my luggage into the plane, but didn't search it.
That's one of the perks about flying chartered I thought. I walked up, 5 minutes later I was on board and all we waited on was departure clearance.
Does this have something to do with Japan or their export restrictions?
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Airport security is one of the most ridiculous & arbitrary things I've ever had to deal with. I went to a conference in San Francisco last year, and bought my in-laws a Golden Gate Bridge snow globe. The security goons deemed it a security risk--too much fluid apparently, even though it was pretty small--so they informed me that I could either leave my place in line & mail it, or I could surrender it. I spent about $5 on it, so I wasn't going to spend $10 to mail it, so I told them to keep it. The year before I had brought home a snow globe from Las Vegas without problem. I wasn't paying close enough attention, because they confiscated the rest of presents I had bought as well, including t-shirts & Ghirardelli chocolates. Basically, they stole about $100 from me. I can picture them now laughing as they ate the chocolates while using the t-shirts as napkins...
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Don't know about the situation in Japan, but I know that in the US there are some smaller General Aviation airports
And that's the problem; he was going through the security in the main public airport. There's no control preventing an item that comes through security with a passenger headed for private plane A being handed over to a passenger headed for commercial plane B. Duh.
If the terrorists purchased their own jets... would preventing them from bringing a shuriken on board their private jet prevent them from flying that same jet into a building?
No?
Did you actually bother to think that through at all before posting your emotional knee-jerk?
Wired had a big write up how Steve doesn't put plates on his car and feels free to park in the Handicap spots at will at his companies. So why would this surprise anyone.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/the-mystery-of-steve-jobs-plateless-benz/
It would surprise people because it is completely false.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
I had to fly through Narita once on my way to Beijing during the bird flu scare and I saw things at the airport there that I will never forget. Mainly the hordes of doctors, nurses, and security people who all boarded the plane upon landing (probably 20 people total) and put infrared cameras right in everyone's faces (like really strangely and aggressively). People who were deemed "a risk" had these funny yellow stickers attached to them by the doctors (weird!) and were herded off the plane. We were all then given "health history" forms to fill out that were in some of the most ridiculous Engrish I have ever seen - I could only barely understand about a third of the questions. The half American/half Japanese guy sitting next to me said that he considered the event and specifically the form a true embarrassment for his country and we then proceeded to repeat the medical inspection routine two more times are different points along the way to pick up our bags. You also should have seen the smoking lounge there...it's incredible and also permanently staffed with a clean-up crew in hazmat gear with masks and vacuums that attach to their backs to clean up the butts and ashes.
My point is that crazy shit happens in Japanese airports and it's best to just accept it...it comes with the territory. Jobs should have been prepared for this being the frequent jet-setter that he is. I've only been to a Japanese airport once and wasn't surprised at all by the story.
I don't know how many years on this Earth I got left. I'm going to get real weird with it. - Frank Reynolds
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said he’ll never come back to Japan after officials at an airport barred him from taking Ninja throwing stars aboard his private plane, SPA! magazine reported in its latest issue.
"SPA!" means "The Onion" in Japanese.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
"Based on the /. summary it appears that this was a public airport. What's to stop him from giving the weapons to someone else who is getting on a public flight? No point in having the security check at that point."
And what's to stop him from landing his plane anywhere he wants, buying weapons, flying to a public airport and jumping out to supply everyone in the terminal with weapons? I guess they do a security check for people that get off planes?
No, of course not, because private planes don't land at the same terminals as big 747s. They land at the airport and taxi over to a smaller hanger area where you get off your plane, get in your car and drive way. No gift shop, no lines, no security besides the security gate that your car drives through.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone