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Comment by joezydeco | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I'm missing something here. The only duty-free shops I've ever seen while traveling internationally are on the secure side of the airport terminal. You need to show you're checked in and boarding a flight leaving the country. The bottle isn't handed to you until you're walking onto the flight (and sometimes not until you're on the plane)

So how did the replacement material get on the secure side of the airport before being swapped into the bottle?

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One of the commenters makes a better point:

"Also, why bother replacing the contents of the bottle? A bottle of duty free booze is a rag and a lighter away from being a Molotov cocktail."

Airlines limit the alcohol content allowed in the cabin. Even before all the liquid silliness, you were not allowed to take "strong rum" from the Caribbean in cabin. All your best fuels will not be allowed.

(The rum distilleries output something like 160 proof. This is diluted with water and aged to the rum most people know, which is legal for export. Locals however, can bring containers to the distillery and have them filled directly from the still.)

It would be scary, but wouldn't really do anything to the plane.

I'm pretty sure everything in a plane is fire resistant. Plus the low air pressure would make the fire burn poorly.

Alcohol mixed with water doesn't burn well enough to do much.

Maybe if they sell 95% alcohol (Ever Clear). But even so, while it might hurt someone, it would not cause mass casualties. And if you wanted to hurt someone you don't need to go on a plane first.

It sounds like that it's just this airport that has this policy. That isn't very secure.

I agree that it's not very secure, although as Schneier says in his post, the liquid ban is useless.

...except for forcing people to buy drinks.

(Which OTOH brings me to the question whether you'd slip through if you'd bring a (non-liquid) frozen block of water ice.)

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