Beauvais-Tille Airport review: Horrible experience and unkind staff

The bad press about this place is sadly true. You don't have to look far to find scandalous reports of security going through passenger's underwear, disrespecting disabled travellers or traumatising children. One review's leading comment sums it up perfectly:

"Airport employees are arrogant, aggressive, and abuse their position for things they have no right to do."

After many years of flying I can easily say that this is the worst airport experience I've had. First of all, the search through my case (especially considering the bottleneck of passengers) was wholly unreasonable. Every single item that was in a box or pouch was removed and pawed over then cast aside with no effort to return a single item to its container. I'm not even sure why there's a scanner if this level of scrutiny is still required afterwards. I overheard passengers saying "This is the worst airport I've ever known" twice in as many minutes.

My collapsible travel camera tripod, carried on board too many flights to remember, was deemed absolutely forbidden. I asked why and the staff pointed at the illustrations of restricted items, which absolutely did not include tripods. She pointed at the golf club and baseball bat. "This is neither of those" I reasoned. She said I could hit someone with it, while gesturing a hammer motion.

She and another colleague went to fetch their boss (because it takes two), leaving other passengers waiting with zero staff. A cheerless man returned to say I needed to go back past the queue I'd been standing in forever to re-check the tripod as hold luggage. I asked if I had time to do that and he said "Non". I asked if I could leave it in lost property to collect if I come back another time and he said "Non". I asked what I was supposed to do and he shrugged.

When I asked if he was taking a £100 item without justification he just shrugged again and walked away, taking my tripod with him. I followed and asked for his name so I could file a complaint. He angrily covered his badge and petulantly grunted at me, stomping away with a "pff" and a disregarding wave of his hand. Is it not a legal obligation to provide a first name in France, as it is in the UK?

Don't even start me on the accusations of filming when I then pulled out my phone. I ended up with three members of staff around me and had to prove that I'd taken no pictures while the one who took my tripod mentioned the police, no doubt intended to unnerve me. I packed my dishevelled things back into my case and went to my gate, awaiting an interception that never came. Real nice and relaxing.

This is just my version of what many other reviews suggest is a regular occurrence at this place.