Why airports were forced to use controversial X-Ray machines banned due to what security could see

A security expert has revealed why American airports were forced to use controversial X-ray machines to scan passengers.

The X-ray machines, known as Rapiscan scanners, were brought in after an attempted terror attack in 2009 for $180,000 each.

The machines were short-lived after it was revealed quite how much security using them could see.

The answer: just about everything, as the X-Ray machine would give full body scans of people, genitals and all.

This was a drastic move from America’s airports, however it came in a time of desperation according to a security expert.

Will Geddes, a security specialist and expert and founder of ICP group, spoke exclusively to LADbible about the decision to bring in these machines.

He pointed to two attempted terror attacks as key factors, the ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid in 2001 and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in 2009.

The shoes Richard Reid wore on a plane in 2001 (FBI)

Fears were already high from Reid smuggling explosives onto a plane in his shoes before being subdued by passengers and crew when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab snuck a bomb onto a plane in his underwear.

When asking Geddes why the Rapiscan scanners were needed after this, he said: “The biggest problem that obviously the TSA had was if it's body worn and you went through a traditional gate it would just pick up anything metallic and there was no means of actually looking at the body intrinsically to find out if there was anything body worn.”

He said after Abdulmutallab’s attempted bombing, foiled after a passenger noticed and subdued him: “Obviously, all the airports went into this action, a sort of tail spin with ‘we've got to get this new security in place now’.

Geddes went on to add: “Typically in the States, for federal agencies, the TSA especially, they just buy the first thing that they could possibly get.”

In this case it was the Rapiscan scanners which the security specialist admitted were ‘very invasive.’

In late 2012 concerns began being raised about the invasive nature of the scanners, leading Congress to write a letter to Rapiscan in November 2012 demanding they update the software.

The full body scanners were very invasive (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After discovering that Rapiscan could not meet their June 2013 deadline, Congress decided to pull the contract with the company and remove their scanners.

The agency announced at the time: “The TSA has strict requirements that all vendors must meet for security effectiveness and efficiency.

"Due to its inability to deploy non-imaging Automated Target Recognition (ATR) software by the Congressionally-mandated June 2013 deadline, TSA has terminated part of its contract with Rapiscan.

"By June 2013 travellers will only see machines which have ATR that allow for faster throughput.

"This means faster lanes for the traveller and enhanced security. As always, use of this technology is optional."