Frog Escalator

This is what I saw in London City LCY last week.

One main line leading to one x-ray belt, one WTMD and one body scanner.
Another line, taped off with a tensa barrier that a woman was opening every so often to let passengers into a second line, seemingly doing so once the main queue got backed up too much. This second line had an x-ray belt and WTMD but no body scanner.

I just missed out being able to go through the non-scanner lane. There is no real way to self-select to go through the non-scanner lane. The woman controlling the filtering into the second line was pretty hawk-eyed and you could only go through if she personally addressed you and motioned you to go through. People trying to go through uninvited were told to stay in the main queue.

I divested myself of every bit of metal and went through the WTMD without bleeping. The passenger in front of me who had bleeped told the security staff she didn't want to go through the body scanner but they said "You'll be taken away to a different part of the airport and all of your luggage will be thoroughly scanned". After fifteen seconds of remonstrating she submitted to the body scanner given this veiled threat that she might miss her flight.

I have made a new Freedom of Information request to ask the Department for Transport whether passengers requesting a manual search are then obliged to have their luggage undergo an enhanced thorough scan, i.e. having your entire bag emptied and every single item examined. This happened to me once in London City airport when I'd inadvertently left a Bic pen-sized screwdriver in my computer bag -- this was in the days before body scanners at London City though.

Touch-wood I've managed to avoid being asked to go through the scanner and I've never had to ask to opt out -- a relative miracle given how often I go through Gatwick South!