Airport body scanners were so revealing airports were forced to remove them

Airplane travel come with its own unique set of challenges. Experts have advised you to never charge your phone in an airport. Or even to never drink water on the airplane.

Even before the flight takes off, airport security can be another intimidating barrier to cross for some. Now, imagine throwing in an X-ray body scanner that reveals way more that you are comfortable with, to the mix.

As per Ladbible, something on those lines almost happened a decade ago, but luckily, airports did not go along with the extremely revealing technology.

Backscatter technology for airport security

As per the report, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the US began rolling out a new X-ray body scanner during the early 2010s. This technology produced an X-ray image of passengers that revealed everything from head-to-toe. And we must emphasise: everything!

This X-ray Rapiscan body scanner was installed as a response to an incident in 2009 where a man concealed explosives in his underwear on a flight. Luckily, the bombing plan was foiled. And airports took it as an indication that security needs to be stepped up.

These revealing body scanners were in use at 30 US airports, at some point. Even 10 of Britain's largest airports installed these machines back in 2013. They produced X-ray images of the full body of passengers who walked by it.

Airports forced to remove these body scanners

Needless to say, these Rapiscan scanners were highly effective in revealing any dangerous things concealed by airport passengers. However, these were viewed as very intrusive due to the nature of the 'X-ray nude' images it generated.

Critics drew parallel between these machines and strip searching airport passengers. These machines were also very expensive at $180,000 each.

Thankfully, these machines were terminated by TSA in June 2013.

Now, body scanners at airports and elsewhere have been designed keeping in mind people's privacy. So, these generate generic images of the body, instead of producing X-rays of a person's naked body.

Read more:

⋙ Woman reveals what she found on airplane headrest and netizens are horrified

⋙ Flight attendant reveals the shocking reason why you should never use the airplane seat pocket

⋙ Here are the 5 most dangerous airports in the world

Sources used:

Ladbible: 'Airports forced to make change to X-ray machines after horror over what they were able to actually see'