The scanners are so precise that in airports it intercepts each month up to a ton of objects, which are then resold to auction or data in charity.
The rules on liquids and objects that cannot be brought in flight all we know them, yet every day millions of passengers present themselves at airport checks with something they should not have in the suitcase. From embarrassing objects, such as sex toys exchanged for detonators, to more delicate situations, such as cannabis -based products, legal in some states but illegal in others.
If at least once, observing the multicolor wave displays of the scanner, you wondered how the agents do to distinguish pills, money or dangerous tools in the midst of the chaos of your backpack, the answer is simple: they see much more than it seems. The current scanners, in fact, allow you to precisely identify knives, weapons and camouflaged objects, and the numbers are impressive: in large airports you can intercept each month up to a ton of prohibited materials. Let’s see how this technology works.
Tomography scanner. After the attacks of 11 September 2001, airport safety has known a very rapid technological evolution and today the agents have a series of computerized tomography scanners (CT), the same employee in the medical field to diagnose fractures or tumors. These tools send low intensity X -rays that cross materials at different speeds, distinguishing between metals, liquids and organic compounds.
A sophisticated algorithm re -elaborates hundreds of images, producing a rotable 3D scan on the three axes, which allows agents to examine each object from different angles, without having to physically open the suitcase. The most advanced versions are so precise that they allow you to leave computers and liquids in hand luggage, as they can identify any explosive substances even if hidden within them (it is the reason why the European Union is moving to eliminate the restrictions on the liquids in the suitcases).
Surprising discoveries. Every year the TSA (the American Transport Security Agency publishes a “best-of” of the most absurd finds found during the checks. They range from firecrackers to toy grenades, to the living snakes hidden among the clothes. The attempts of more creative smuggles include knives inserted in loaves of bread, handmade explosives hidden in cans of drinks and drugs hidden in elasticies for hair or candies.
Despite the severity of the rules, most of the time the agents allow passengers to solve the situation in an painless way: if you happen to make mistakes, you can entrust the forbidden object to those who accompanied you at the airport or, if possible, send it in the hold with the possible embarked baggage.
But some articles, of course, are destined to be confiscated on the spot.
Where do the objects end? Contrary to what can be thoughtfully believing, however, what seized by the agents does not end in their pockets (or, at least, it shouldn’t …), in any airport in the world. In the United States, part of the “booty” is disposed of according to rigorous safety procedures, but the big one is resold through state auctions on platforms such as Govdeals.com.
In Europe practices vary according to countries. In the United Kingdom, value products are donated to local beneficial bodies (practice also chosen by some Italian airports) while in other airports, such as most of the German and Scandinavian ones, a return option is active: you can request to be sent by the object by courier, by paying a rate, or labeling it and withdrawing it by appointment, perhaps on the return from the trip. Finally, in our country, dangerous materials are generally destroyed while for the rest of what has been seized it is cyclically resold in a series of state auctions.
