The beginning of February 2010 will forever go down as a notable date in the history of Manchester Airport. This was the day that the airport started using body scanners in their battle to keep airports, planes and the skies free from terrorists and potentially harmful substances and equipment.
Terminal 2 was chosen as the first venue for the new body scanners to be brought into effect. Perhaps fittingly they chose noon as the time they would start to be used. But is this high noon for the terrorists or high noon for the passengers who are against them being used?
The body scanners have certainly drawn a line between two distinct groups of customers. There are those who feel their privacy and dignity is being abused by being scanned in this way, and there are those who feel this is an acceptable step to take if it means being safer on all flights.
The idea is that people are scanned at random, so you could pass through the security checks without being selected to be scanned at all. If you are selected you can refuse to be scanned – but in this case you will be searched privately instead.
The main contention with the scanner seems to be that people are intimidated by the thought of other airport staff seeing them naked. But those in charge at Manchester Airport are keen to point out that this is not the case. In fact it has provided a short video on its website to show the nature of the images that are produced.
If you take a look at the video you will see that while it allows staff to see whether anything suspicious is being carried, it does not reveal any body parts to those watching. So it seems that in this regard there is no need for concern. The bigger cause for concern would be if people who are carrying things manage to get through the security checks and take them onto a plane.
This does appear to be a good security process which will result in planes and passengers being even safer than they are at present. And anything which achieves more in this direction has to be a good thing.
The end of February will see body scanners being brought into other terminals at Manchester Airport as well, so we’ll be watching to see what the reaction is.