News outlets are reporting that the airport in Amsterdam where staff failed to find the explosives that were taken aboard Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day has now installed the new full-body scanners that produce a detailed 3D image of passengers.
ap photo. An employee at a Netherlands airport demonstrates the full body scanner and the images it shows. The highlighted area shows a possible security threat.
The incident has prompted passengers to wonder how the scanners actually work and if they could amount to a violation of privacy. CNN has reported that the scanners use radio waves that would allow staff to “detect substances such as explosives and plastic weapons.” The process takes 30 seconds at most but may “take longer for airport staff to review the images produced and — given the level of detail, more passengers may find themselves subjected to follow-up security checks as a result,” according to CNN.
Some passengers say the “naked” images produced by the scanners are humiliating and worry that images could be saved by the computer. The Transportation Security Agency says the equipment would not produce a compromising image of a passenger.
So far, these scanners are used at Manchester Airport in England, Tokyo’s Narita Airport in Japan, Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Guiron airport. In the U.S. 40 scanners have been installed in 19 airports, according to CNN.
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Scanning everybody is not necessary. There has not been a single Southern Baptist that has tried to blow up a plane. There has not been a single Catholic mother with two kids carring a bomb on board a plane. All of the bombers have been middle aged from good families Muslims non American and non Voting. The ACLU and Moveon.org might call this profiling so if they will declare themselves we can strip search them. The guy had the explosive in his underwear and the area is blocked on the body scan from viewing so a full body scan will not work. We are spending a fortune on scanning people who are of little or no threat so the fractional percentage people can’t claim they are being discriminated against. Would the police search a black housing project for violent KKK members? Liberal America is taking us down a stupid expensive road.
In the interest and safety of all persons aboard a a plane, all persons should be checked, and others should be checked even more so.
This doesn’t bother me, for one, I do not fly. I have no desire to go anywhere I cannot drive my vehicle.
I have flown before, and do no plan on flying ever again. Wouldn’t bother me if all passenger airline companies shut down.