Airport bans toy soldier's three-inch rifle from plane... because it's a safety threat



The crouching, camouflaged figure is most certainly armed. But few would say he was dangerous.



Security officials disagreed however when he passed through a scanner at Gatwick Airport.



His three-inch, plastic toy gun was branded a ‘firearm’ and banned from a transatlantic flight.



Banned: A couple were not allowed to take this model soldier and its gun on board a plane at Gatwick Airport

Tiny: The resin model rifle had to be sent to Canada by post

Terror alert: Julie Lloyd had to post the 'firearm' to the UK as she was banned from taking it on a flight

The plastic Royal Signaller was bought by tourist Julie Lloyd as a present to take home to her husband Ken, a recently retired policeman in Toronto, Canada.



Mrs Lloyd, 59, who regularly visits Britain to see her mother, said: ‘I took it to the airport still in its wrapping, but they discovered the little gun when it was scanned.



‘It is only about three inches long and there are no moving parts. There isn’t even a trigger.



‘But they wouldn’t let me take it with me. I had it in my hand luggage. I just didn’t think it would cause a problem. They said rules were rules. There was no flexibility or common sense.’



Mrs Lloyd, who emigrated with her husband in 1993, was forced to retreat from security to buy a padded envelope to post the offending rifle home instead.

‘I posted it to myself from the airport and it arrived a few days after I got home,’ she added.

She had bought the figure on a visit to the Royal Signals Museum, in Blandford, Dorset.

Security scan: Ken Lloyd has a nine-inch toy soldier confiscated after a check at Gatwick Airport

Museum spokesman Adam Forty said: ‘This is a military museum and takes security very seriously, especially around military installations and airports, but this does seem more than a little excessive. The “firearm” is three inches long and cast out of resin.

‘It’s probably just as well we didn’t sell her a toy tank.’

Mr Lloyd, 60, who was a member of the Territorial Army in Britain, said: ‘Julie had been to the museum to buy me something on my retirement.

‘But when she got to the airport she was faced with a system that had been created by bureaucrats.’



A spokesman at Gatwick said bosses would investigate the incident.