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New Body Scanners at WBS International Airport

Passengers who fly out of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport will now pass through a new, state-of-the-art security checkpoint with a full body sca...
luz airport scanners

Passengers who fly out of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport will now pass through a new, state-of-the-art security checkpoint with a full body scanner.

About 140 airports in the U.S. use the new scanners in place of the old body scanners. They're not cheap. Each one costs about $150,000 of our federal tax dollars.

"We're glad to have it installed, and we're hopeful it will speed the process and get the people on the airplanes and make it a better experience here at the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport," said airport director Barry Centini.

The entire screening process now takes about five seconds and the full body scanned images are gone and replaced by generic images of males and females which TSA officials check.

"TSA's been very sensitive about the privacy issues voiced to us so we've worked with the manufacturer to have privacy software installed in this and other machines and the beauty is passengers can see exactly what we see," said TSA spokesperson Ann Davis.

"I'm all for security and I'm all for safety and make sure everybody going on board has no fear, but I want privacy and I don't want random people scanning my private areas and I think it will be a lot more comfortable," said Susan Martino of Binghamton, New York.

"It will be fine. You won't get as many complaints as you had before," said Dan Bowen of Florida.

TSA officials said the new, speedy electromagnetic body scanners are safe for everyone to use.

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