Airport Security Curiosity

[DeletedMember 715]

Do any of you have issues with airport security screening since surgery?

I light up the body scan device like a Christmas tree, resulting in an extremely intimate physical screening. And it happens every single time!

My abdomen is always lit up. Could be staples? Could be excess skin!

But what's even weirder is I also get random other areas. Today it was my shoulder. I've even had it light up on my freakin' forehead!!!

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this as I don't recall seeing any topics on it as I've been reading the forum posts over the last year.

And I don't think it's a common thing as I even had one TSA agent look at the scan results and say "Holy Crap!"

I fly fairly often and this never happened a single time before my surgery and resulting weight loss. Now it's 100%. Looks like I'm going to have to get Global Entry or Nexus or something so I can get pre-check every time. I have no issue with metal detectors.

(edited for typos)

Edited January 8, 2017 by msujester

[James Marusek 5,244]

I have never experience this problem. When I go and pay property tax at the county courthouse, I have to pass thru a metal detector. Sometimes it trips off, probably because of my belt buckle. Generally what the guard says, is try and pass through the center of the detector and not lean to one side. That seems to work for me.

[suzzzzz 1,005]

I have flown a lot since surgery and have had no issues. Even with tsa precheck, you still have to go thru metal detector or the scanner in some airports.

[clc9 644]

When I lost a ton of weight a few years ago, the scanners always pick up my left upper arm. My skin sags the worst on that arm and they think I could be smuggling something in there. So while I can't explain your forehead, the loose skin can be read like something's hiding under your clothes. Embarrassing, because then they want to touch it to be sure.

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[jess9395 5,448]

My excess skin lit up the scanners the few times I flew with it. I don't fly often. I had plastics and haven't lit up since.

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[clc9 644]

PS - get TSA precheck for sure. They use the metal detector instead of the hands over your head scanners that seem to be the problem.

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[Djmohr 6,965]

I had this happen frequently before my weight loss, now I have zero problem. I am not sure what the heck causes it.

[Dairymary 533]

I've got plates and screws in my femur and pelvis and staples in abdomen from my VSG and from my hysterectomy. Funny thing is when I go through TSA none of them never show up. But I have had it light up in my shoulders and breasts. Kind of funny. Makes me wonder what else the scanners aren't picking up. Seems to me a gun and bullets made from titanium would pass through with no problems. (Gee, hope Big Brother isn't listening)

[Bufflehead 6,358]

It isn't the staples.* I used to set off the scanner exery single time, usually lighting up where I had the most excess skin. It was one of the reasons I got precheck, so I can go through the metal detector instead of the scanner. No more scanner problems plus super fast lines through security, no taking shoes off, etc. Precheck is worth every penny to me even though I don't even fly that often.

*the scanners see inside your clothes, but they can't see inside your body, at least not enough to pick up a tiny line of staples.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Bufflehead

[Babbs 14,680]

Can I just say this is fascinating and I really had no idea that excess skin or even the surgery itself could cause this? I flew to Hawaii 8 months post op, but didn't have an issue. My husband on the other hand, who had a bypass almost 11 years ago, gets pulled aside CONSTANTLY when he flies. I never really put two and two together?

What a great subject!

[LittleBill 2,231]

I've had enough trouble with the TSA that I decided a while ago, if I have to fly there, I ain't going there. But a lot of that was because I fly armed - or as armed as I can legally be. I can regale people for an hour or more with TSA stories. One involved a pat down after I went through the metal detector with my belt on. Boy, did I get hollered at for that! You would have thought I was smuggling a CANNON on board!

I've got plates and screws in my femur and pelvis and staples in abdomen from my VSG and from my hysterectomy. Funny thing is when I go through TSA none of them never show up. But I have had it light up in my shoulders and breasts. Kind of funny. Makes me wonder what else the scanners aren't picking up. Seems to me a gun and bullets made from titanium would pass through with no problems. (Gee, hope Big Brother isn't listening)

Just as an aside, titanium guns are very difficult to make. Smith and Wesson made a few revolvers with titanium cylinders for a while, but the rest of the frame had to be aluminum, and the barrel had to be steel. Taurus made an all titanium revolver for a while, but it was prone to cracking. And that excluded the barrel, which was steel as well. So titanium guns would still show up, just like the "plastic" Glocks, which still have plenty of metal in them to make them work.

[Julie norton 2,850]

I travel 4-5 times every year and in tropical climates I get checked thoroughly.. one of the tsa ladies mentioned if you are warm and perspiring ( like in Hawaii. Open air security) that it may trigger a check. Doesn't matter. I never have anything interesting on me... but I do let those cute young tsa men wand me closely and I am smiling

[Dairymary 533]

@@LittleBill thanks for the info. I figured there had to be some sort of physical limitations of the metal that accounted for the lack of titanium weapons.

But TSA is kind of a joke sometimes. I got stopped and had to toss an unopened jar of homemade Amish jam in the trash (I was traveling with just a carry on so couldn't check it). And yet I went through with a full bottle of Vitamin Water once and a friend boarded a plane in Salt Lake City with a hunting knife in her backpack. She forgot it was even in there until her return flight in Minneapolis where they proclaimed "I don't think so!" When they saw it on X-ray.

[LittleBill 2,231]

About seven years ago, our oldest daughter and her daughter were flying up to visit from Florida. She was running late, and grabbed a bag her husband was using as a range bag. She made it through security at the airport in FL, spent a week here, and then departed for home. At that point, all hell broke loose.

Apparently there was a loose 9mm round in the bag. They had missed it somehow at the first airport, but not at the second. The whole place came completely unglued. You would have thought she had a nuclear device in her pocket. She told me about the whole thing. She said, Daddy, it was awful. Some big fat sheriff kind of a guy was screaming at me about how he could have me arrested, so on and so forth".

She figured the only reason they let her go on her way was our little granddaughter was screaming like an air raid siren the entire time. They kept her bullet. She wanted to kill her husband for the trouble, but I kindly explained it was her fault for not checking the back completely, not his. That did not earn me any points.

[southbound 159]

Ohh wow... these stories are not easing my nerves for next months flights to and from San Juan!!!

I'm a school bus driver and my son is a hunter. One wouldn't think these were remotely related until the day I forgot his shotgun and shells were laying in my back seat and I went to work. The lead driver came up to me and asked was I planning on needing to defend myself. I still had no clue what he was talking about. He said... the 12 gauge shotgun and four boxes of shells on the back seat of your car might be heavily frowned upon by authorities. Of course he was just making it out way bigger than it was, but still No weapons allowed on school property. This was two years ago... so I understand the concern. Covered them with a blanket and was good.

The same year, same sons teacher called and let me know he had a pocket full of shotgun shells and I needed to come get the ASAP. He wore his duck hunting jacket to school. Thankful I knew his teacher. Otherwise that could have been really bad!

So before we travel... we do serious ammo checks in all bags because God only knows where they may have stashed their ammo!

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