Airport scanner is ready for work

AS OF YESTERDAY, things seemed calm at the one terminal at Philadelphia International Airport where a full-body scanner has been set up.

The line at the security checkpoint at Terminal F was not long during the early afternoon. And not everyone had to endure the full-body scan or the full-body pat-down.

Today, the day before Thanksgiving - one of the busiest travel days of the year - it remains to be seen if anyone would heed the call to participate in National Opt-Out Day, a campaign urging people to boycott the full-body scans.

Anyone who refuses to go through the scanner will have to go through a metal detector, and are then supposed to receive a full-body pat-down.

John Pistole, administrator for the Transportation Security Administration, said during a conference call with reporters yesterday that anyone who refuses to go through a full-body scanner and who refuses a pat-down is "not going to get on that plane."

The local airport police will escort that person away if he or she continues to be uncooperative, he said.

Pistole said that the TSA has received about 2,000 complaints on the body scans or pat-downs but that some complaints were by people who said they didn't like the new procedures and that they weren't all by people grousing about security gropers. He said the complaints are being investigated.

There were times yesterday when the scanner at Terminal F was not used, such as during a shift change of security personnel.

During those times, not everyone had to undergo the pat-down.

Passengers appeared to take the changes in stride.

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," said Beverly Moskowitz, 67, of Wilmington, Del., before she entered the Terminal F checkpoint.

"The body scan is fine. The American people have to learn to be a little bit inconvenienced."

Moskowitz, reached on her cell phone after she went through the checkpoint, said she didn't have to go through the scanner and didn't get patted down. She said TSA officials appeared to be "picking people by chance" for pat-downs. She saw a man get selected, then a woman in a wheelchair, and neither had issues with their pat-downs, she said.

Davey Hall, of Rowlett, Texas, who was at the airport on his way to State College, was fine with going through the scanner. He even did it twice.

After going through the first time, Hall, 37, wanted to smoke a cigarette, so he came out of Terminal F and then re-entered.

"It slows things down a bit," he said of the body scanners before he went through a second time. But, he said it was important "to make sure everything's all right."

Ken Bearley, 45, of Cincinnati, said he didn't like the scanners or pat-downs. "I appreciate security, but I think there has to be a better way of doing it," he said.

Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said the Terminal F scanner was set up at the end of October.

She anticipates that other terminals will get the machines but didn't know if all of them would.

Victoria Lupica, a spokeswoman at the airport, the ninth busiest in the United States, said about 86,000 inbound and outbound passengers were expected yesterday, and about 80,000 today.

She said Sunday is expected to be the busiest day of this Thanksgiving week, with 90,000 to 100,000 passengers.