Monroe Chat

....to be barred from their flights Per Daily Mail online.
This is applicable from Heathrow and Manchester International airports in the UK ...

Air passengers who refuse to submit to a full body scan at Heathrow and Manchester airports will be barred from taking their flights from today.

The two airports started operating advanced imaging technology (AIT) scanners from noon. Birmingham airport will follow suit later this month ahead of a national rollout.

The move - strongly criticised by civil liberties campaigners who say the scanners are an invasion of privacy - follows the attempted Detroit bomb attack on Christmas Day.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a flight as it was about to land in the US city.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned that the scanners breach privacy rules under the Human Rights Act for their naked images.

The exemption of under 18s from being scanned, which was in place during the trial of the machines in Manchester, has also been removed.

Today the Department for Transport published an interim code of practice for the scanners. The officer operating the machine never sees the image, and the employee viewing the scan must be in another room.

The scan cannot be saved, printed or transmitted. Passengers can also demand that only officers of their sex see their image.

BAA, which runs Heathrow, refused to comment on how many scanners are in place and in which terminals they will be used, although it is believed they will be in Terminal 4.

While only a small minority of travellers are expected to be asked to undergo the scans, those who decline will not be allowed to board their flight.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis confirmed the move in a written parliamentary statement, saying the scanners would help security staff detect explosives or other dangerous items.

'In the immediate future, only a small proportion of airline passengers will be selected for scanning,' he said.

'If a passenger is selected for scanning and declines, they will not be permitted to fly.'

Lord Adonis stressed that the interim code of practice on the use of body scanners stipulated that passengers would not be selected 'on the basis of personal characteristics'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0eJUK2aH3