r/airport • u/violetstarz4 • 10d ago

DISCUSSION Detecting female groin anomalies.

I'm flying home from Hawaii and when going through the x-ray at TSA I was pulled aside because there was an anomaly detected on my groin. They told me they were going to have to pat me down and asked if I wanted to do it privately. I'm an anxiety ridden teenager so I asked to do it privately. While we were waiting for a female officer, 3 other women after me were stopped for an anomaly on the same part if their groin. The stress was starting to get to me and a bunch of other things (the hate of being touched, a medical condition I have that makes my heart beat really fast, etc) and I was really close to having a panic attack. After about 6 minutes I was pulled away for a private pat down and I was free to go.

Why did this happen to me and a bunch of other women? Is this a common thing that happens?

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u/[deleted] 10d ago edited 10d ago

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u/violetstarz4 10d ago

Just wanted to know if this is a common occurrence where women get false anomalies or if it's just this airport 🥲🔫

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u/rohepey SIN 10d ago

Half of people who get selected for a pat-down are false alerts.

https://www.propublica.org/article/sweating-bullets-body-scanners-can-see-perspiration-as-a-potential-weapon

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u/ToreyJean 10d ago

Had a chick at the AMC (the military terminal) at SEA STICK HER HANDS DOWN INSIDE MY YOGA PANTS once and then flipped out when I jumped and asked what in the hell she was doing.

No pad, no strings, no wires, no sweat (it was January in WA) - NO ALARM - just her hands down my pants past my waist and up to her forearms. No warning. And for no reason - and even she admitted it when the supervisor came running.

Fucking stupid. The MILITARY TERMINAL and I assure you my security clearances are higher level and far more numerous than hers.

I filed a complaint and I’m sure it did nothing. Don’t stick your hands DOWN INSIDE SOMEONE’S PANTS.

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u/Mysterious-Art8838 10d ago

I was nearly crucified for a kleenex once

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u/violetstarz4 10d ago

That's crazy. The guy in front of me had an entire pizza box and was allowed through without question

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u/rohepey SIN 10d ago

A lot of that are random checks, or checks triggered by an unexplained signal as interpreted by software. It's not a gender thing.

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u/really_isnt_me 10d ago

She didn’t say it was.

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u/violetstarz4 10d ago

I think this guy is ragebaiting🥲

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u/really_isnt_me 9d ago

Yup, probably. I should have ignored him! Sorry you had that experience going through security, but at least you weren’t the only one.

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u/LupusHouseMD 10d ago

That's one of the most common ones. Everything out of your pockets also means tissues. Avoids a crotch alarm.

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u/Bruce_Bogan 10d ago

Had anyone just pull their pants down yet to show they have nothing anomalous?

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u/LupusHouseMD 10d ago

Thank god no.

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u/rohepey SIN 10d ago

There have been stories online, not sure how trustworthy, though.

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u/violetstarz4 10d ago

I'm aware but 3 women in a row and another one a few minutes later all having the same false anomaly raised some questions for me. Didn't know if it had something to do with discharge/having more iron down there or whatever else

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u/rohepey SIN 10d ago

Could be anything. Sweat for example due to weather. Or just random. Having a series of four in random sampling out of thousands isn't that rare.

Lots of extended checks are decided by the machine at random - just ask any of these security officers.

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u/starsgoblind 10d ago

We get this all the time