13th October 2009

Manchester airport to use new X-ray scanners

The scanners will be on trial for a year at Terminal 2 they will show staff an outline of the passengers and whatever they are carrying, removing the need for passengers to be manually searched. But the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' genitals. Which as you might expect has caused uproar among the public who feel their privacy is being invaded.

Although the airport has rushed to state the images are not pornographic and will be not be kept on record. The images will be viewed by one officer who will be in a remote location so no contact with the passengers is required, the image will then be deleted on approval.

The scanners made by RapiScan systems have already been trialled at Heathrow airport and are being introduced to US airports cost £80,000 each.

Sarah Barrett, head of customer experience at the airport admitted that the system would be controversial.

“Imaging technology offers a potential alternative but we know that some people see it as controversial,” she added. “That’s why we’re running a trial. We’re being completely open about how imaging technology works so that passengers can tell us whether it is an acceptable alternative”.

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