Unions to Pilots: Skip the Scan

Two of America’s biggest pilot unions are urging their members to refuse to submit to full-body scans when they go to work. They complain the machines are "intrusive" and could expose pilots to risky amounts of radiation over time. Those who refuse are subjected to pat-downs that were made more invasive this month—one pilot said he felt as though he’d been “sexually molested.”

“Our members are just absolutely outraged,” the president of the US Airline Pilots Association tells USA Today. The head of the Allied Pilots Association called the pat-downs “a demeaning experience,” but said they, too, are urging members to opt for them—and to demand that they be conducted in private. Meanwhile the biggest union, the Air Line Pilots Association, is trying to hammer out an alternative screening method with the TSA, but hasn't yet advised members to avoid the scans. (More airport scanners stories.)