Phoenix Airport Tests See-Through X-Ray Machines for Passengers

It sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie, but it’s really true. Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix will soon be testing a new federal screening program to detect concealed explosive and other weapons on passengers before they can board an aircraft. The anti-terrorism technology, called backscatter, takes X-rays of passenger’s bodies. It has been used in other parts of the world for several years but has never been tested in the United States because of privacy concerns.

The technology is already being used in prisons and by drug enforcement agents, and it has been tested at London’s Heathrow Airport. Officials say the machines are effective in helping to detect plastic or liquid explosives and other non-metallic weapons that can be missed by standard metal detectors.

The Transportation Security Administration has said that the technology will be used initially as a secondary screening measure—only those passengers who fail the standard screening processes first will be sent to the X-ray areas for further screening. But even at that point passengers will be given the option of choosing the backscatter X-ray or a traditional pat-down search.

Some critics say that the high-resolution images are too invasive, because they clearly show the outline of the passenger’s body, plus anything attached to it such as jewelry. But the TSA said it has found a way to refine the machine’s images so that the pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still being effective in detecting threats.

The TSA also said that the X-rays will be positioned so that the image can be seen only by a security officer in a remote location. Other passengers, as well as the agent at the checkpoint, will not be able to see the picture. Additionally, the system will be configured so that the moment an individual steps away from the machine, the X-ray will be deleted. It will not be stored, printed, or transmitted anywhere, according to TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.

The agency is planning to provide more information to the public about the new technology later this month, but one machine is scheduled to be up and running at Sky Harbor’s Terminal 4 by Christmas. A few other U.S. airports will have the X-ray machines installed by early 2007 as part of a nationwide pilot program.