Helsinki-Vantaa Airport discontinues X-ray scanning of passengers

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Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport has decided to discontinue the use of the X-ray passenger scanner, which was utilised to “virtually strip search” passengers before boarding a plane.
      After a year-and-a-half in use on an experimental basis, Finland’s Civil Aviation Authority Finavia decided not to reapply for a licence for the scanner from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority Finland.
      The device requires an appropriate licence, because it uses ionising - in other words - radioactive radiation.
     
The termination of the experiment was reported by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority magazine Alara.
      In practical terms the continued use of the equipment was made impossible by the European Parliament and Council’s enactment from last spring, which failed to recognise the use of a passenger X-ray machine as an appropriate security measure.
     
According to Finavia director Kari Nurmela, the use of the machine was experimental. The general notion of a “nude camera” influenced the operator’s decision to discontinue using the apparatus. According to Nurmela, the German passengers, in particular, considered the use of the scanner inappropriate.
      The device was introduced at the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport in October 2007. The person scanner “sees” through clothes and photographs people “naked”. Consenting to the use of the full-body scanner was voluntary.
      In public, Finavia advertised the scanner as a “low-energy X-ray machine”.
     
The apparatus revealed possible hidden objects, such as guns and explosives, under people’s clothes.
      A passenger was photographed from back and front. The images were only visible to a security official examining them behind a wall.
      When introducing the machine, Finavia explained that a person could not be recognised from the images.
      The images were not saved in the machine’s memory. Finavia believed the equipment would have been a success.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Majority of air passengers agree to fluoroscopic scanning at Helsinki-Vantaa security check (29.9.2008)

Links:
  Backscatter X-ray (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat