Originally Posted by
McCoy
One of the interesting things I learned from a family member who does work in this area is that the x-ray software does randomly overlay suspicious items onto the image of bags. The security officer at the terminal has to spot these, and press a button, to alert/dismiss the overlay. Some of these images are complex, and hidden. (They're not all gun-shaped!) And so this can take time, as the officer doesn't immediately know it's a dummy imprint, and has to process in accordance with training. Different scan 'windows'/filters, etc.
This would appear to be true and I have a personal experience, although not UK. About 5 years ago my partner and her 12 year old daughter were coming back from Minorca and the daughter went through the human x-ray scanner first. When on the other side and waiting for us she was able to peek at the monitor of the adjacent bag scanner and she saw an image and what appeared to clearly be a gun showing in a bag.
The person viewing the image on the screen seemed totally unfussed and simply pushed a button on the console and never reacted or had any bags coming out of the scanner pulled out for manual examination....almost a total CBA approach. She told her mum and I about it when we got through the person scanner and seemed very panicy (she is a nervous flyer anyway) and asked us to speak to someone.
Her mum found someone with some seniority in the security area and her daughter explained what she had seen and that she had definitely seen a gun. He explained that training images of banned objects are randomly "inserted" and the operator has to spot them and react accordingly with procedures. Only when the operator presses the button to fail a bag does the system inform him / her that it is not a real object.
He also explained that failure to spot any banned item just once is treated very seriously and the operator is relieved immediately from their position and sent for retraining and a chat with their Supervisor!
So am sure the UK will do the same.