The failed Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner has created congressional calls for greater use of body scanners. In a rumored top secret implementation of the glasses worn by James Bond in the movie, “The World Is Not Enough” it appears that TSA may be considering use of those glasses to solve their problem. Advocates of that technology say it would have detected the non-metallic items carried by the Panty Bomber islamic militant from Nigeria.
Air2Air has learned that a rumored project to access the technology behind the X Ray glasses may be more than a rumor, but most likely not. Obviously, Air2Air would like to outfit their personnel with glasses of that capability as both a security measure and a real morale booster considering the very attractive clientele that quite often flies with us. (As a side note, surprisingly, many of our pilots have offered to pay for the glasses themselves.)
TSA could be expected to be very interested in the capability which could allow their personnel to casually observe passengers going through security checkpoints and determine if those passengers were hiding something they should not. Of course, for the TSA, the issue of training, identifying objects which represent threats and not just weird personal items, proper use, and authorization are major issues. Not so for Air2Air. Air2Air's current air tight security system relies on ensuring that our customers are carefully screened before they board our aircraft. Not only does our flight booking process ensure our passengers are who they say they are and are not carrying proscribed items, but our pilots take a close look at each and every passenger before they board.
Imagine how much more effective and less intrusive those glasses would be than the 40 millimeter wave technology units at 19 airports which TSA operates and the 150 backscatter, low-level X-ray machines that will be deployed over the next year at a cost of $130,000 to $160,000 per unit. Another 300 similar units are scheduled to be purchased in 2010. One company’s implementation of the “see through glasses” technology cost only $2,400 per set. That means over 50 TSA agents could be outfitted with the glasses for the cost of one X-ray machine. (Check out http://www.advanced-intelligence.com/glasses.html)
Of course if the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it does not trust the privacy safeguards of those machines, it is very unlikely that the James Bond glasses which will depict body shapes and private parts would be any more acceptable to them. Jay Stanley, an ACLU privacy expert has stated that "We would certainly all be safer on airlines if we all flew naked”
Although we agree with that comment, Air2Air would like to assure their passengers that one of the benefits of flying on Air2Air is that they will never be required to “Fly Naked.
