About 5 years ago I became concerned about the level of security at Manchester. I often set the bells ringing when I went through the scanner and every time I asked what had set the alarm off only to be told after a body search "its probably your belt buckle". The staff started to treat me as a trouble maker and couldn't understand my concern that on an average day some 10%to 15% of the passengers on my aircraft were categorised as "belt buckle" passengers.
I made enquiries about security at Manchester from both FD and Cabin Crew of different companies and found the same story.........invasive and completely ineffective body searching of crews. Some of the stories I heard from the female staff were quite alarming with many complaining of inappropriate touching and retouching of intimate parts of their body by some questionable females.
I tried to make inquiries about the basic human rights of all of us both pax and crew with regard this invasive procedure considering none of us has committed a crime. I was very quickly told to wind my neck in by my company and told that Transec are a law unto themselves.
Maybe it is time to challenge the way security checks are carried out and to insist that the non invasive use of the "wand" should be the only initial form of screening. I had great sympathy with Diana Ross at the time as all this incident did was to prove how outrageous the current system is.
With the money being spent there is no excuse for treating innocent fare paying passengers and crew as criminals, infringing their human rights and with collusion of Transec, sexually and physically abusing them on a vast scale.
Effective security is a must, abuse is a disgrace.
AB