TSA to Remove 'Invasive' Scanning Machines from Major US Airports eTravelBlackboard
go to original January 21, 2013

The Transportation Security Administration has been removing its X-ray body scanners from LAX, O'Hare and JFK, and putting them in less-busy airports. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)

The scanning machines which caused a stir in the United States for producing ‘naked’ images of passengers will be removed at airports across the US.    

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it would be doing away with the controversial machines after the company that produces the ‘backscatter’ scanners, Rapiscan, confirmed it would be unable to meet a deadline to fix privacy issues ordered by US Congress.

The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners in use at 30 major airports by June.

The other airport body scanners, which use millimeter wave technology to create a generic outline of travellers, will remain as the company that produces these machines, L-3 Communications, was able to produce software that no longer generated naked images of travellers’ bodies.      

According to the TSA, the remaining scanners will facilitate a quicker screening process, meaning faster lanes at airports.

Spokesperson David Castelveter said the TSA currently had 669 millimeter wave machines, plus an option for 60 more.

A sign of things to come, the TSA quietly removed the first of the backscatter scanners from seven major airports, including New York’s JFK and LaGuardia, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International, in October last year.

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