Pilots propose body scan boycott

[mark1447]

Australian pilots are monitoring moves by their American counterparts who have been told to boycott controversial full-body scanners that capture images of a passenger's naked body.

 

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents more than 12,000 pilots in the US, says the security devices at airports pose serious health risks and breach privacy.

 

With the technology soon to be introduced in Australia, the vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA), Captain Richard Woodward, says pilots here have similar concerns.

 

"The principal issue is not only privacy. It's total radiation exposure," he said.

 

"The allowable limit for radiation workers is 20 mSv per annum. And the average pilot, depending on where they're flying, gets between three and six.

 

"For instance, if you fly to London or over to South America it's equivalent to a chest X-ray every time you fly.

 

"So radiation is cumulative and going through these machines would just add to the radiation, the total radiation the crew are getting exposed to."

 

'Broken promise'

 

Captain Sam Mayer from the Allied Pilots Association says pilots in the US have been advised to opt out.

 

"What that means is not to subject themselves to the full-body scan and instead get the physical full body pat down," he said.

 

Captain Mayer says there is not enough evidence about the potential health risks of the devices and pilots are worried about being exposed to radiation.

 

"Our pilots sometimes have to go through this three, four times a day over many years," he said.

 

"There's some concern about the radiation that you are going to receive over the course of your career, in addition to the radiation that we already know we receive by flying long distances at high altitudes.

 

"There's the concept [that] we have been fairly vetted, we've been fingerprinted, they've done criminal background checks on all flight crew members.

 

"And they promised us almost 10 years ago that after 9/11 they were going to go to a biometric system of identifying crew members so that we wouldn't have to be subjected to this kind of intrusive scan or pat down."

 

Safety concerns

 

Full-body scanners will be introduced at international airports in Australia from early next year as part of the Federal Government's $200 million plan to boost aviation security.

 

Captain Woodward says there are no moves for a similar boycott here.

 

Instead he says AIPA will continue to work with the Government to address safety concerns.

 

"We're going to work closely with the security authorities from the Federal Government to see what sort of imaging equipment they want to put in and use," he said.

 

"We certainly have our preference for non-ionising radiation type of equipment. So we have had preliminary talks with the security authorities and we'll continue that."

 

A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says the technology to be introduced in Australia will be more advanced than the machines used in the US.

 

She says safety checks will be carried out on all equipment by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.

 

Photo/Source:

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/09/3061799.htm?section=justin

[lilbluefoxie]

I refuse to go in those full body scan things, I instead took teh patdown when I was in BWI Airport. Its more incentive to drive places instead of fly.

[553 Bridgeton]

There is no need for this! Its just wrong! The patdown is good enough.

[YankeesPwnMets]

I think passengers should go through this, but not the pilots or crew because they would be exposed to too much radiation

[Grand Concourse]

Um, what? We would be exposed to the same radiation. So what about us, the passengers?

[Grand Concourse]

I refuse to go in those full body scan things, I instead took teh patdown when I was in BWI Airport. Its more incentive to drive places instead of fly.

 

What sickens me is that the Homeland security cheif won't go thru the very machines she is forcing us to go thru. What a hypocrite.:tdown:

[7LineFan]

Um, what? We would be exposed to the same radiation. So what about us, the passengers?

 

They would have to go through the scanners wayyyy more often than most passengers. Radiation damage is cumulative.

[East New York]

They would have to go through the scanners wayyyy more often than most passengers. Radiation damage is cumulative.

 

But still, what about the frequent flyers, ground crew, flight attendants, airport personnel, etc.

[7LineFan]

But still, what about the frequent flyers, ground crew, flight attendants, airport personnel, etc.

 

Flight attendants are complaining too, actually, from what I have read. I haven't heard anything about airport personnel or ground crew.

 

You have to take into account that pilots receive radiation when they are up in the air as well. The ones against the scanners don't want to receive any more than they already do.

 

And I also read that pilots go through screening twice a day, four times a week or something... how many times a week does a frequent flier fly on average? I'm asking an honest question here because I've seen pilots and others on both sides of the argument...

[uptown164]

Are the full body scanners and pat downs going to far?

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/12/travel.screening/index.html

 

I say people are going to complain no matter what.

[Messino]

These people are disgusting. They expect peoples privacy to be invaded just because you want to board a plane. The reason why things go down because of moron TSA agents who dont do their job so they come up with these radiating X-Ray machines that do more harm than good.

 

And this is how pathetic the TSA is.. My ex-girlfriends kids were at the airport ready to head through the metal detector and the TSA agent tells the 7 year old to upbotton his pants so they can check inside his waist band. F#$% that! And then the TSA puts this picture on their desktop like its a big F#$$% joke! Bunch of fake ass wannabee cops..You know thell mess with these x-ray images or joke about it etc like the scavengers they are..

 

[East New York]

^:eek: That is absolutely disgusting!!