New Body Scanners at Heathrow

2/2/2010

Full Body Scans now Compulsory at Manchester and Heathrow Airports.

Passengers now  using Heathrow and Manchester airports will be refused boarding  if they refuse to undergo a full-body scan.

Despite opposition from civil liberties campaigners, the advanced imaging technology (AIT) scanners are now in operation at the two airports, and will be followed by Birmingham airport at the end of this month, followed by a nationwide roll-out.

The tougher security measures follow the failed  bomb attack aboard a US plane on Christmas Day. A Nigerian suspected member of Al Qaeda is accused of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in his underpants as his flight was about to land in Detroit.

Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary said that at present passengers accepted that they are subject to a "pat down" search if the sensory alarm is triggered after passing through the metal detector.He added that the body scanner was in the same interests but would pick up possible sunstances secreted around the body.

He also stressed that all images captured by the scanners would be deleted immediately after the passenger has passed through the scanner, and contrary to popular belief, staff cannot see naked images.

Only a small ratio of passengers will need to be fully scanned, but if they decline, they will not be allowed to fly.

 Passengers would not be selected for the scans “on the basis of personal characteristics”.  

BAA undertook the first ever trial of body-scanning technology in 1991.  A second trial took place at Heathrow from April 2004 until June 2008.

A BAA spokesman commented that there had been a lot of controversy over the body scanners, with worries of privacy to passengers, but stressed that the image generated by the scanner cannot be stored ,and that the security personnel viewing the images cannot recognise people.