Unions Tell Pilots to Avoid Body Scanners at Airports

by leavingwt 6 Replies latest social current

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

    Some people are fed up with our 'Airport Security Theater' stunts.

    Unions Tell Pilots to Avoid Body Scanners at Airports

    Pilot unions at two of the nation's largest airlines are advising their members not to submit to body scanners at airport security checkpoints as tension grows over what they see as intrusive or risky checks.

    Unions representing pilots at American Airlines and US Airways have advised their more than 14,000 members to avoid the scanners, which peer beneath clothing, and instead get a pat down from Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers.

    . . .

    http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-11-11-scanners11_ST_N.htm

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

    Op-Ed. . .

    T&A at the TSA

    . . .

    Consider TSA's recent $440 million stimulus-funded rush to deploy so-called advanced imaging technology (AIT) scanners at airports throughout the country. These X-rated x-ray machines enable TSA employees to peer beneath the clothing of passengers - including women and children - ostensibly looking for bombs. Those refusing this indignity will be subjected to the humiliation of a public groping session at the hands of a government employee. The overreach may well prove to be the agency's undoing.

    Airline pilots and flight attendants, who pass through this screening on a daily basis, are beginning to push back. "There's a level of anger out there right now amongst the pilots in response to this that I haven't seen since I've been doing this job," American Airlines pilot Sam Mayer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, told The Washington Times. "This is the straw that broke the camel's back. We've taken a lot, and this seems to be the one that's pushed some guys over the edge."

    Note to TSA: If a pilot wants to take down an airplane, he doesn't need a bomb. He can just push forward on the controls. Yet TSA tells us that whole-body imaging is essential in the wake of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed underwear bombing attempt in December 2009. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in March that it was "unclear" whether the new machines would have thwarted Mr. Abdulmutallab. Three months before the Christmas Day incident, a GAO report chided TSA for rushing the devices into service without sufficient operational testing. TSA's pattern clearly has been to act first and ask questions later.

    . . .

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/11/ta-at-the-tsa/

  • read good books
    read good books

    They have already taken down the body scanners in some countries airports, it's time to do it here.

  • Berengaria
    Berengaria

    They aren't even up here for the most part. I'm more concerned with the radiation etc., than being seen.

  • GLTirebiter
    GLTirebiter
    I'm more concerned with the radiation etc., than being seen.

    Good point, Berengaria! Licensed radiologists are medical professionals trained to understand and manage the risks of X-ray machines, airport screeners are not. Two obvious differences compared to medical X-rays are avoiding unnecessary and repeated exposure, and wearing a lead-filled apron to protect the gonads. This is a significant concern to flight crews and "frequent flyers" who are screened hundreds of times every year; their cumulative exposure is high despite the low dose for one pass through the machine.

  • read good books
  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

    rgb -- Great T-shirts. Thank you. [The terrorists have won.]

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