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Be prepared for LHR security to body scan your children

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  • The airport will have a private room if a passenger does not want to use the scanner or have a pat down in public.

    Personally i like the scanners as i can keep my leather brogue's on,previously they had to go through the xray machine (richard reid,failed shoe bomber era) .
    Last week the scanner picked up a small safety pin holding a dry cleaners ticket inside my ben sherman retro shirt,the security operative pointed to a part of my body on their display and just searched in that area,all light-hearted and not a problem.
  • hollydays
    hollydays Posts: 19,812 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 6 August 2017 at 7:24AM
    That goes for almost every poster on this thread. It may not be a coincidence that no poster on this thread (except Eric, agrinnall, and now me!) has posted on the 23% thread :rotfl:

    Do posters allow their children to study STEM subjects, or does that introduce more dangerous vibes than a scanning machine into life as we know it, Jim?

    Answers on a postcard to ... an airport security office near you.

    Personally, I think I have been invited for a full body scan six or seven times now. I've so far declined (as has been my right to date in UK) and endured the science lesson from the security staff and the accompanied walk to the little broom cupboard where one dons their rubber gloves and the other watches and takes notes :eek:.

    It's not so much the danger (or lack of it) designed into the machine, than the fact I don't trust the security staff or the airports to maintain and calibrate the thing correctly at all times (hospital radiologists need not apply for those jobs;))

    NAh ... I am hiding the real reason, aren't I? Yes you've guessed it, I like the smell of new rubber gloves as they take them out of the packet:p

    In Australia I understand, if you decline a mild broiling in their microwave machine, then you don't fly. I guess it won't be long before HMG rules something similar.

    Eh?...........

    Once I was picked out for more metal than was normal
    Turned out to be my bra wires( who doesn't have them) AND my blouse had get had metal buttons covered in fabric.
    I was taken to a private area where I volunteered to lift up my blouse to confirm what they already thought.
    They were very polite and I didn't have a problem with this.
    No drama required
  • peachyprice
    peachyprice Posts: 22,346 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    hollydays wrote: »
    Eh?...........

    Once I was picked out for more metal than was normal
    Turned out to be my bra wires( who doesn't have them) AND my blouse had get had metal buttons covered in fabric.
    I was taken to a private area where I volunteered to lift up my blouse to confirm what they already thought.
    They were very polite and I didn't have a problem with this.
    No drama required

    They asked you to lift your blouse? I set them off all the time with bra wires (particularly M&S bras) I have never been asked to lift my blouse!

    I also set them off with my left shin, at more than one airport I don't know why, there is no metal in my left shin!

    I like looking at the screen to see where they think the metal is, it's quite amusing when I know there is no metal there.
    Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence and face your future without fear
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    They asked you to lift your blouse?

    No, they didn't, as is perfectly clear from what holly wrote.
    hollydays wrote: »
    ...I volunteered to lift up my blouse to confirm what they already thought.
  • hollydays
    hollydays Posts: 19,812 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 7 August 2017 at 12:03AM
    They asked you to lift your blouse? I set them off all the time with bra wires (particularly M&S bras) I have never been asked to lift my blouse!

    I also set them off with my left shin, at more than one airport I don't know why, there is no metal in my left shin!

    I like looking at the screen to see where they think the metal is, it's quite amusing when I know there is no metal there.

    Yes I've got metalwork in my arm too, quite a lot , but that's never actually caused a problem.
    If they have a query they will require an answer .
    It wasn't so much the bra wires but the combination of that with the metal buttons that were covered was giving a higher reading.
  • vivatifosi
    vivatifosi Posts: 18,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! PPI Party Pooper
    I have had a frozen shoulder which is starting to ease, so couldn't lift my arm up to be scanned. The scanners were fine with me and just did a different search instead. There are always solutions if people want to find them
    Please stay safe in the sun and learn the A-E of melanoma: A = asymmetry, B = irregular borders, C= different colours, D= diameter, larger than 6mm, E = evolving, is your mole changing? Most moles are not cancerous, any doubts, please check next time you visit your GP.
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 35,926 Forumite
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    agrinnall wrote: »
    No, they didn't, as is perfectly clear from what holly wrote.
    As female who seems to set the alarm off every time I go through, I don't volunteer to do anything.

    I just do what they ask.
  • hollydays
    hollydays Posts: 19,812 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 8 August 2017 at 6:25AM
    Pollycat wrote: »
    As female who seems to set the alarm off every time I go through, I don't volunteer to do anything.

    I just do what they ask.

    I didn't volunteer till I was in a private area, the fact they had taken me there indicated their concern.
    I was actually very, very ,impressed with the sensitive way they dealt with the issue. It's very intrusive to ask someone to lift clothing and they did it in such a subtle way that they were letting me lead the way as to what I was comfortable with and feeling in control.
    I didn't just offer to do this straight away, a conversation lead up to this . No doubt if I hadn't responded with this offer they would have had to ask me anyway .
    They were extremely professional and obviously very well trained.
    They also would have been trained in looking for behavioural cues of body language and it's infinitely better to show you've got nothing to hide and are not uncomfortable ,and to respond to ' hints' ( because if I hadn't of responded what do you think my reluctance would indicate to them)as opposed to them saying" can you lift your blouse, " which might make some people feel threatened and uncomfortable and wondering what was going to happen.
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 35,926 Forumite
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    hollydays wrote: »
    I didn't volunteer till I was in a private area, the fact they had taken me there indicated their concern.
    I was actually very, very ,impressed with the sensitive way they dealt with the issue. It's very intrusive to ask someone to lift clothing and they did it in such a subtle way that they were letting me lead the way as to what I was comfortable with and feeling in control.
    I didn't just offer to do this straight away, a conversation lead up to this . No doubt if I hadn't responded with this offer they would have had to ask me anyway .
    They were extremely professional and obviously very well trained.
    They also would have been trained in looking for behavioural cues of body language and it's infinitely better to show you've got nothing to hide and are not uncomfortable ,and to respond to ' hints' ( because if I hadn't of responded what do you think my reluctance would indicate to them)as opposed to them saying" can you lift your blouse, " which might make some people feel threatened and uncomfortable and wondering what was going to happen.
    I will still wait and do as they ask.
    They know what they want to do.
    If they say to me 'can you lift your blouse', I'll lift it - and not feel that it's intrusive.
    It's just somebody doing their job.

    I don't need to show I don't have anything to hide - I don't.

    I don't think your reluctance would have indicated anything at all to them.
    It's their job, they do it all day every day.
    They will be used to first time flyers, nervous flyers, people who don't speak English as a first language.
    In fact, they well think the opposite - "Oh, here's somebody who wants to run this show, what are they hiding?"

    I've been taken to a private room, I didn't find it intrusive at all.
    It was just someone doing their job.
    I wasn't hiding anything.
  • GlasweJen
    GlasweJen Posts: 7,451 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I loved those machines! They made travelling much quicker for me as I no longer needed the "special" pay down for having a pacemaker.

    I'm back to special pat downs due to not being able to stand in the machine any more, can't wait until they design one for wheelchair users.
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