Redmond Airport losing body scanner

Roberts Field has the newest, most private type of body scanner available, and that’s why starting Friday, the airport will no longer have the scanner.

It’s all because the developer of some of the older scanners can’t meet software update deadlines, and many bigger airports around the country have these dated scanners.

Before June, these larger airports will lose their body scanners, and the Transportation Security Administration is taking newer, more private scanners from smaller airports, like Roberts Field, and moving them to larger airports, where they say the scanners are more important to have.

Roberts Field Airport Security Coordinator Nicole Jurgensen said Monday that at smaller airports, security officials can be nearly as efficient without the newer technology.

Jurgensen said all security officials have completed refresher courses on metal detectors, and getting through security shouldn’t be much different.

However, the metal detectors don’t tell officials where a “trigger” metal spot might be — meaning people may have to wait and get a longer and more thorough pat-down than if they had triggered the body scanner.

Jurgensen said travelers should give themselves at least an hour and a half to get onto their flights, especially with the timing of losing the scanners being so close to Spring Break travel.

NewsChannel 21 spoke with travelers to get their reaction to the airport losing the scanners, and many said they didn’t like it. They said any slowdown at the airport will be annoying.

One woman, however, said she was pleased to hear the news, and that she worries that body scanners could mean future health problems.