Just been through MAD security and spent a short while watching the security staff at the scanners. The two men on the two lines I watched spent very little time actually looking at their screens. I had always assumed that the operatives were trained to identify suspicious items for further scrutiny but these two chatted, gazed elsewhere and occasionally tapped keys on the pad in front of them.

Different items seem to show as different colours. Is the system semi- or completely automatic at detecting suspicious items? Why are things different colours? Bleeps went sometimes.

Did not want to attract too much attention to myself by staying longer or photographing events, but I did not see any active involvement by people in the screening process.

(Flying BA465 so not off thread!)