Pilot Refuses Full-Body Scan, Says TSA Doesn’t Make Travel Safer
October 20, 2010 10:39 AM
cbslocal.comMEMPHIS, Tenn. (CBS/AP) — A Tennessee pilot who says he’s tired of being manhandled by security agents is waiting to see if he will lose his job because he refused a full body scan.
ExpressJet Airlines first officer Michael Roberts was chosen for the X-ray scan Friday at Memphis International Airport. The Houston-based pilot says he also refused a pat-down and went home.
The 35-year-old Roberts told The Commercial Appeal newspaper he wants to go to work and not be “harassed or molested without cause.”
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jon Allen says a person was turned away after refusing to follow federal security procedures but declined to say if it was Roberts, citing privacy considerations.
Roberts says he has safety concerns, but called TSA a “make-work” program that doesn’t make travel safer.
“I just kind of had to ask myself ‘Where do I stand?’ I’m just not comfortable being physically manhandled by a federal security agent every time I go to work,” he told the Commercial Appeal.
Earlier this week, CBSNewYork reported that full-body scanners have not yet been installed at New York City area airports, despite plans that were in place to have them installed at Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, and LaGuardia airports by September.
The Transportation Security Administration told The Star-Ledger of Newark the installation is complex and the scanners would arrive “in the coming weeks.”
Passengers who prefer not to be scanned can choose to be patted down and pass through a metal detector.
LISTEN: WCBS 880′s Levon Putney with Rep. Bill Pascrell
TSA spokesman Ann Davis says passengers are no less safe. She says the scanners are designed to be faster and less physically intrusive than metal detectors and pat-downs.
The TSA has installed 259 scanners at 59 airports nationwide.
4 comments:
It never really occurred to me before how many x-rays employees go through in high security situations. I'm surprised they're not all glowing green by now.
TSA is definitely not making it the friendly skies. Feels like they are just making a trip to the airport even more of a hassle.
All the TSA has accomplished is to convert thousands of contract security employees into government employees thereby making the Department of Homeland Security the second largest bureaucracy in the world behind the U.S. military.
And we wonder where the money went.
Diane - I didn't think employees especially pilots had to be naked body scanned. Watch their cancer rates explode in a few years.
Mr. Shife - People should quit flying for a month or two, they'd change all that real fast.
Mr. C - Good point.
AWTL (Anyone Willing To Listen) - Wasn't it just a miracle that right when these naked body scanners were ready to roll out there just happened to be an underwear bomber? It also strikes me as odd that security stopped the underwear bomber but then a "sharp dressed man" talked to security and got him on the flight. (FBI? CIA?) Eye witnesses say that the bomber was being video taped by a man during the whole flight.
So I believe this was all set up to "HELP" the American people accept the naked body scanners.
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