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Pilot Refuses Full-Body Scan, Says TSA Doesn’t Make Travel Safer

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A woman stands inside a full-body scanner that detects explosives and drugs as a measure of airport security. (CBS)

A woman stands inside a full-body scanner that detects explosives and drugs as a measure of airport security. (CBS)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CBS/AP) — A Tennessee pilot who says he’s tired of being manhandled by security agents is waiting to see if he will lose his job because he refused a full body scan.

ExpressJet Airlines first officer Michael Roberts was chosen for the X-ray scan Friday at Memphis International Airport. The Houston-based pilot says he also refused a pat-down and went home.

The 35-year-old Roberts told The Commercial Appeal newspaper he wants to go to work and not be “harassed or molested without cause.”

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jon Allen says a person was turned away after refusing to follow federal security procedures but declined to say if it was Roberts, citing privacy considerations.

Roberts says he has safety concerns, but called TSA a “make-work” program that doesn’t make travel safer.

“I just kind of had to ask myself ‘Where do I stand?’ I’m just not comfortable being physically manhandled by a federal security agent every time I go to work,” he told the Commercial Appeal.

Earlier this week, CBSNewYork reported that full-body scanners have not yet been installed at New York City area airports, despite plans that were in place to have them installed at Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, and LaGuardia airports by September.

The Transportation Security Administration told The Star-Ledger of Newark the installation is complex and the scanners would arrive “in the coming weeks.”

Passengers who prefer not to be scanned can choose to be patted down and pass through a metal detector.

LISTEN: WCBS 880′s Levon Putney with Rep. Bill Pascrell

TSA spokesman Ann Davis says passengers are no less safe. She says the scanners are designed to be faster and less physically intrusive than metal detectors and pat-downs.

The TSA has installed 259 scanners at 59 airports nationwide.

View Comments
  • Phil

    Well done, sir. Don’t let the terrorists win. We’ve wasted countless dollars and time doing stuff that doesn’t make us an ounce safer. Time to stand up to idiotic policies. Hopefully more people will follow.

  • rbcintexas

    They have no problem basically strip searching each one of us yet refuse to profile terrorists for who they are. I am sick and tired of people trying to make profiling a evil term when a lot of our problems would be eliminated by profiling but our Government wants to sue states that are trying to protect their citizens by asking residence of people only after probable cause has been established. It is a freaking shame that our government has given more rights and protection to terrorists and illegal aliens that what we have a citizens. And they wonder why US citizens are so mad.

  • Joe Public

    This is a product of Liberals taking over with political correctness. They can’t imagine why political correctness is cauing all of these stupid wierdo issues. In fact they like it. Why? Because they moronically turn around and blame the conservatives for all of it. Just listen to Obama. It’s all the Republican’s fault, eh? Ok Obama. Whatever you say, man. Cause you so smart. Well, I can tell you that I don’t need to fly anywhere that bad. And so the Liberals with their stupid political correctness are destroying one industry after another. Yup. I guess that fits into their Big Plan, somehow. I wonder what that Big Plan actually is… I just can’t guess… uh huh.

  • Zenman

    Lawl !1!1!
    awesome!

  • frequent flyer

    This man has DONE what most people in the aviation industry THINK about doing. In the airline industry, the TSA is viewed as yet another government joke–the common reference is: “Do you know what TSA stands for? THOUSANDS STANDING AROUND!”

    Take a tip from the Israelis–trained security people do a non-invasive interview with passengers. They are courteous and thorough–and EL AL has one of the best safety records.

  • FedUp389

    neither safe nor secure

  • Zedek

    I decided long ago to quit flying. It’s time passengers and pilots together said, “We’re not putting up with this invasive personal overreach.” If I have a choice, I will not fly. If we all did this, the system would correct itself.

  • Joe

    I hate the government.

    • TJ

      I love my country; it’s the government I don’t trust.

  • Gate Matthews

    So TSA figures that the pilot might slip by with a box cutter? LOL. Haven’t they figured it out the the pilot doesn’t need a weapon to slam the plane into a building anytime he chooses to do so. TSA is a work project for the unemployable, and for those with low self-esteem.

  • Susan

    We no longer fly to our destinations and most family members have also given up flying. It’s not worth the expense, rude TSA employee who are lazy (i.e. the 3 TSA Agents standing right there watching me forget me cellphone in a bowl. They stand mute like idiots and let the passenger behind me gently remind me “not to forget my phone.”Our famaily vactions may take 12-24 hour drives, but we now get to see more of wonderful country and fellow citizens.

  • rdamurphy@hotmail.com

    I sat in the Portland Airport for three hours recently, and the food court is right by the TSA. They claim they don’t profile, but in three hours, the only people searched were women, aged 18 to 25. No men. No unattractive women. No minority or non American women.

    And the inspector was a woman….

  • Peter Gozinya

    More T&A, Less TSA!

  • kingofchatalot

    I want to see the full body scan of TSA spokesman Ann Davis………….

    I mean, if her name is Ann why is she called a spokesMAN?

    Let’s do a scan……………..then post the results……….

  • Who’s wit me?

    More T&A, less TSA, that’s my motto!

  • Greycoat

    What idiocy putting pilots through body scans and/or pat downs. Piolets have the wheel. They don’t need explosives, then can just drive the plane into a mountainside or into the ground if they wanted to, so what in the hell is the point of patting them down?

    Our government is a collection of idiots.

  • Patrick Henry

    Funny that we are in a supposed “War on Terror” and the government refuses to secure the border where terrorists can and do come into the country at will.

    They won’t secure the border but they will make you dehumanize and humiliate you to get you accustomed to obey.

    Did you ever ask yourself how the Patriot Act was voted on roughly a week after 9/11? Perhaps it was already written?

  • Thomas Jefferson

    Congratulations!!…if every pilot was as liberty loving as Mr. Roberts and refused to fly, even for just one day, we could get rid of the TSA Gestapo once and for all…and we’d all be better off for it…

  • Who’s with me?

    More T&A, less TSA, that’s my motto!

  • Warmblood

    This is governments way of degrading the people and playing psychological games with them. You are cattle being herded. They are letting you know who’s boss. You are a subject who needs to be controlled. It’s all a mind game. EVERYONE who flies should refuse the scanners and take the pat down. Think how that will tie up air travel if no one goes through the scanner. The airports will quickly decide that this is not working.

  • http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/67499.html TSA Resistance Movement Grows « LewRockwell.com Blog

    [...] Lad Hudac: Red lettering, front page, Drudge! LRC is a vessel of freedom and [...]

  • Brian

    The Pilot is correct. TSA is a completely un-necessary government agency that wastes billions of dollars and has yet to show any public benefits or positive results from all that spending. Unfortunately, wasting money and being worthless are the “perpetual; motion machinery” which ensure that a government program or agency will continue forever.

    • CG

      Excuse me, but I must have missed another commercial aircraft being flown into a building. Oh, that’s right…there haven’t been any! I would expect this attitude from an pompous glorified bus-driver-with-wings but not from the flying public who are most at risk.

      You had better pray every day that the TSA is successful in their mission. They have to get it right every time while the terrorists only have to get it right once.

      • John Spiers

        CG,

        You are missing the point… the airlines would do a better job of protecting their own aircraft and passengers than the TSA, at a tiny fraction of the cost. That the TSA motivations and incentives are different than the airlines make them ineffective, and worse, an opportunity for terrorism. Terrorists know the TSA manual and how to get past. Airline security would be trade secret and constantly changing, a vital process in security. Remember, it was because the 9/11 hijackers knew the FAA rules on pilots giving up their craft upon being “hijacked” that all of those people died. 9/11 was made possible by the FAA in charge of security. All we want is to be safe for once when we fly.

      • ChrisRJFO

        CG – Had you done more with your own life, you wouldn’t make remarks like that. It’s a real shame that you are so insecure about your lack of personal achievement.

      • ablubud

        Where are the Wal-Mart security inspectors?

      • Takeresponsibility4yourself

        CG you are right and it’s so sad how self-absorbed these people truly are. If they did their homework they would know that it was the airlines fault this all happened. If people weren’t so worried about customer service we wouldn’t be in this mess. Look up the rules before you fly and maybe your experience would be a lot better. Dealing with lazy people who can’t find the time to look online and check the rules/regulations before flying is very tiresome and old. Just follow the rules and it wouldn’t be so bad.

      • thorschariot

        the pilot doesn’t need a gun or bomb, sport. he has complete control of a multi-ton aircraft loaded with several thousand pounds of fuel. you know, like the ones flown into the Twin Towers. this is like patting down soldiers for guns before they get into a tank.

  • Josh

    This is exactly we my family no longer flies. Tired of being mistreated by TSA government employees who have no incentive to act appropriately. If we can’t drive the distance, then we don’t go there. Period. I’m sure we’re not the only ones. How’s that working out for all you airlines?

  • mac thorne

    i do not fly anymore>I am also tired of being molested by TSA Goons. One felt me off (my balls-it hurt)

  • johanne

    TSA employees are nothing but a bunch of high school drop-outs. They are NOT professionals and they routinely harass fliers and abuse their power. Fire them all!

    • Spuddy

      You are clueless. Check the requirements for the job before you post such nonsense.

  • Ariel

    Not only is the TSA a make work program, it’s also a “feel safe” program that refuses to do what’s really effective to promote security (but politically incorrect).

    The Israelis don’t do airport security the “TSA way.” I wonder why.

    • marylou

      Maybe because they know it doesn’t work and they have a better way?

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