Although world leaders pledge to do their utmost to improve air safety with heightened security checks, staff at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport have been failing to carry out even the most basic checks on hand luggage belonging to passengers travelling to sensitive Middle East destinations.
On Monday evening, security staff at Schiphol, a transfer hub for many international destinations, repeatedly flouted international safety laws on carry-on luggage, despite passengers heading for places like Cairo, Tehran and Beirut.
In the airport's Zone E, used for long-haul flights, Dutch ground staff instructed passengers not to put luggage on the x-ray machine.
They instead directed them to a metal detector, told them to walk through, then laughed among themselves when alarms were set off by hand luggage. There were no attempts to search passengers or to check if sharp and dangerous metal objects were being carried.
Irish airport ground staff have spent the weeks since the September 11th attack on New York confiscating items such as nail scissors and tweezers. The Schiphol security team made no such attempt to screen travellers.
Passengers travelling to Cairo aboard KLM flight 553, which left Amsterdam at 7.30 p.m. on Monday, were shocked at the security breaches.
British writer Guy Saville, who was on board, said: "I was horrified by the lack of security. Even before the events in New York it would have been unacceptable. I was actually nervous about boarding the plane and I don't think that I was alone."
Mr Saville confirmed that a second x-ray machine, positioned before the boarding gate of the Cairo flight was switched off.
"I offered the security man my bag for a manual search, but he just smiled and waved me through."
Joe Humphreys adds: A spokesman for the Royal Marechaussee Dutch border police force, which is responsible for security at the airport, said it was investigating the incident.
He was unable to comment until those inquiries were completed but stressed the type of incident reported "is not normal".
He noted all security controls were checked and found to be in place yesterday afternoon for a visit of the Dutch prime minister to the airport. Some of the security checks at departure gates are carried out by a private company for the police force.
It was possible the x-ray machine in Zone E was out of order on Monday evening, the spokesman said, but he could not confirm last night if this was the case.
A spokesman for KLM said no one from the company was available to comment on the incident, while a spokeswoman for Schiphol Airport said it was up to the border police to ensure security protocols were adhered to.
"If this is true it sounds very alarming," she said.