The Central Government has made it mandatory for 84 airports in the country to install full-body scanners to screen air travellers within a year and issued a standard operating procedure for their use. The
- Out of 84 airports, 26 are hyper-sensitive airports and 58 are sensitive airports. Rest of the the airports of the country have two years’ time to introduce these scanners.
Basic features
- Full-body scanners will replace walk-through metal detectors.
- Passengers will have to remove shoes, belts, jackets, thick clothing and be “divested” of all metallic items.
- 10 per cent of passengers will also be subjected to full pat-down searches at random.
- According to the technical specifications spelt out by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), these scanners will help airports improve passenger throughput as they are required to screen a passenger in eight seconds and 300 passengers per hour .
Why Full body scanners
- As per the circular, walk-through metal detectors and hand-held metal detectors cannot detect non-metallic weapons and explosives whereas body scanners detect both metallic and non-metallic items concealed on the body.
What about privacy?
- Following concerns over these machines generating naked images of passengers, the BCAS has mandated privacy filters.
- As a result, full body scanners will produce only an outline or a mannequin-like image, which is same for all genders.
- A yellow box appears on the body image to highlight areas that may need further screening.
Is this safe for use?
- The circular says that scanner shall provide image-free solution using a generic mannequin. Threats shall be graphically presented.
- These scanners use millimetre wave technology, which means passengers will not be subjected to harmful X-ray radiation, and the machine is safe for use by all, including pregnant women.
