Pilots told to avoid new airport scanners, “demeaning” pat-downs

Just over a week ago, we learned that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was stepping up its efforts to get Americans in front of its new clothes-piercing "backscatter" and "millimeter wave" scanners at airports. The devices have raised all sorts of concerns about privacy (they can see through clothes) and radiation, but those who don't go through them will now suffer an intimate pat-down of nut-busting proportions. And pilots have had enough.

Dave Bates heads the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots and claims to be the largest independent pilots' group in the world. Bates recently told his members that they should refuse the new scans, together know as "Advanced Imaging Technology" (AIT). And he thinks the new pat-downs are a disgusting breach of a pilot's "privacy and dignity."

The scanning devices in question have been rolled out over the last few years, and TSA insists that they are both safe and private. "A single scan using backscatter technology produces exposure equivalent to two minutes of flying on an airplane," says the government.

As for those see-through-the-clothes pictures, they are low-resolution, blurred by algorithms, and immediately destroyed. "Advanced imaging technology cannot store, print, transmit or save the image, and the image is automatically deleted from the system after it is cleared by the remotely located security officer," says the TSA. "Officers evaluating images are not permitted to take cameras, cell phones or photo-enabled devices into the resolution room." (There have been occasional exceptions, however.)

Ars Video

And that peek under the clothes can be useful for all sorts of things. As the TSA said in a blog post earlier this year, "Using AIT, our officers are finding things like small packages of powder-based drugs hidden on the body. When I say small, I mean that one packet was smaller than a thumb print. We have also found small weapons made of composite, non-metallic materials."

Bates worries most about the radiation. "It is important to note that there are 'backscatter' AIT devices now being deployed that produce ionizing radiation, which could be harmful to your health," he wrote in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Dallas Morning News. "Airline pilots in the United States already receive higher doses of radiation in their on-the-job environment than nearly every other category of worker in the United States, including nuclear power plant employees... For example, a typical Atlantic crossing during a solar flare can expose a pilot to radiation equivalent to 100 chest X-rays per hour. Requiring pilots to go through the AIT means additional radiation exposure."

So he advises his pilots not to submit to AIT scans. This of course means a newly invasive pat-down instead, and "there is absolutely no denying that the enhanced pat-down is a demeaning experience. In my view, it is unacceptable to submit to one in public while wearing the uniform of a professional airline pilot. I recommend that all pilots insist that such screening is performed in an out-of-view area to protect their privacy and dignity."

Just how invasive are these pat-downs? Back when the TSA was still testing the new procedure, an ACLU spokesperson in Massachusetts said, "To call it a pat-down is a euphemism... They really go for it."

Bates wants his pilots to get access to airport Security Identification Display Areas (SIDA) without going through the screening that applies to passengers. The thinking appears to be that it makes no sense to screen pilots every time they enter an airport, since they're going to be flying the actual plane. If they want to hijack it or fly it into a building, the question of whether or not they're carrying 10 ounces of fluid and pocketknife would seem to be an irrelevant one.