Lol, sorry, but I'm going to get on my high horse here for a minute! I do think there's a privacy issue involved to be honest with you.

Ok, I can understand the practicality of it, but there's always the human element here to consider and how it could be actually abused in some ways.

Some airports will allow you to go for a body search by a member of the same sex. On religious or medical grounds etc. Though its not obligatory to offer it, and it is also dependant on having spare security personnel and facilities available for the search.

Some airports like Heathrow say you refuse to sybmit to a scan, you dont fly.

On the Rapiscan system that is being brought into most UK airports, the images generated were saved to the machineand had to be authorised to be deleted.

The system has been changed so that only scans that have been selected to be saved as evidence can be saved. Printouts have to be authorised by security managers, etc.

I still think it's an invasion of privacy though Terry, and who knows what's stored or not?

And sure what about the danger of your gonads getting fried from all the X-rays? Nah, I'm against it, even though I'm totally aware that I'm being a fuddy duddy.

Would feel a bit weird walking through them, but if everyone's in the same boat then I'm not too bothered. There are loads of places where people could hide drugs, weapons etc. so like someone else posted, if it stops those people from boarding a plane then I'm okay with it.

Its a balance between human rights and safety, though personally I think the right to be able to fly to a location and get off there safely without having being held hostage or blown up/shot en route kind of overrides privacy.

As for the sterility issue, thats minimal I would be more worried that frequent fliers who do get scanned would have a higher risk of cancers, also there is a known link between millimetre wave radiation and increased tumour development. (In other words any tumours have accelerated growth.)

Unless there is an increase terrorist threat at the moment UK airports do random scanning.

Lol - I feel more sorry for anyone who gets off on seeing x-rays of my tired old bod!:laugh2: For me I think it's a case of the end justifies the means.

Hi Angus :xyxwave:

Yeah, although I'm fine with it, I would NOT like to see whtat is on their screen as I walk through! hahah

Ok, increased terrorist threat and reacting to it is ok... I can deal with that when and if it happen, maybe! But like how often are planes hijacked nowadays? How often within the last few years?

I don't like playing about with radiation and stuff either. Dodgy dodgy.

Speak for yourself. They'll be lining up for a peek at me. Heathrow will grind to a half. :hugesmile:

Nah, but you know what I mean, right? It's dodgy to me.

It was only Christmas Day last year that Omar whatshisface Matallab tried to blow up a passenger aircraft with a bomb in part strapped to his leg and detonated by injecting it with chemicals from a syringue.

Nigerian student flying from Amsterdam to the US

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news...nd-flight.html

Fair play to your man for getting stuck in. A film director of all people.

I'm still not sure Terry, really. I think it could be abused.

Hi!
I will definitely keep my eyes averted till I'm through. I don't want to spoil my self delusion that I'm still young and gawjus:laugh2:

I see where you're coming from, but I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I'm terrified of flying in any case, so anything that lessens the prospect of a mid air terrorist attack is fine by me. It seems that loss of privacy is a price we might increasingly have to pay in this present climate of fear and suspicion.

I just don't like where this could take us as a society, you know? The ramifications of it all. Climate of fear, invasion of civil liberties, barcoding, police state, dehumanization, you know what I'm saying?

But sure you could be blown up anywhere: on a train, bus, on a street.. you name it. It's just a very extreme measure, which could have repercussions and could also be abused.

Its more a measure to instil piblic confidence.

You dont walk through the more effective type, you stand and get scanned a bit like an x-ray. The operators are supposed to view the images in a screened private area not accessible by the general public.

They will detect high density objects like knives and guns, even dense explosives like semtex and C4 plastic explosive, however they wont detect low density home made high explosive, which is more than capable of taking out an aircraft through rapid de-pressurisation.

The makers of Rapiscan admitted it wouldnt have detected the bomb that was strapped to that students thigh last christmas.

Interestingly enough under 18's are exempt because of Child Porn laws, thats one reason why they changed Rapiscans default to delete each scan and not save them unless manually overridden.

I hope they save the pictures somewhere...because damn I'm hot ! :laugh:

No seriously, I think it's a very important question of security to avoid the type of catastrophes we're well aware of. If that saves the lives of many people, then I'm up for it.

I think civil liberties these days is just a delusion rather than an actuality - we already have every part of our lives scrutinised from cradle to grave, and every detail is stored on countless computers. Sensitive and personal information about us is sold on to faceless companies by the very people who are supposed to be safeguarding our privacy. Any random stranger who knows where to look on the internet could find out all there is to know about me in a few clicks of a mouse - my privacy, unfortunately, is no longer sacrosanct.

The "strapped to the thigh" bomb would surely have raised a suspicious eyebrow? Anyway I have nothing against any measure to protect me as I fly, NOTHING!!

Nor me, I would fly naked to be honest, if it meant reducing the risk of any loonys being on board!

Yep, but it doesn't mean that we should become apathetic towards it all and allow ourselves to be "stripped" of all our rights. Sorry, I'll never be in favour of this. More people die from donkeys than do on planes. See what I'm saying? lol

A source would be nice for that, and BTW probably more Donkeys are thrown from church towers in Spain than people who are killed by them.

It's actually a fact. I'll look it up for you if you want. Just trying to highlight the climate of fear we allow to pervade our lives.

Coconuts too. Those lads are deadly.