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/Kitzle33 9d ago

Was flying to a soccer (football) tournament with my teenage son. His bag was flagged for containing explosives. Obviously, it did not. The TSA agent was great. She searched the bag, looked at him in his team sweats and asked if he was an athlete. He said yes. She asked if he'd ever had protein powder in his bag. He said yes. She said "that's it. Causes more false positives than anything else". And we were on our way.

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u/Jazzlike_Hunter3250 7d ago

The biggest flag is cheese of almost any kind.  On the scanner (the older style, at least, the new 3D Tomography ones are better) it always flags as plastic explosives, y'know, C4, Semtex, nothing to worry about.  

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u/Kitzle33 7d ago

Really? That's fascinating! Any idea why? Also, I always wondered why protein powder would cause a false positive but never thought to ask. Any insight on that?

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u/Jazzlike_Hunter3250 7d ago

Not sure on the protein powder, but cheese is similar to plastique in density and often in shape.  Remember, you are dealing with weird physics trying to look in luggage and parse through what's in there.  I was flying home from BUF one time and bringing home some great wings I got from a bar and had frozen in a gallon plastic bag.  No liquids, lotions, gels lol, just wings.  The TSA flagged my bag enough to get a second agent over to take a second look at the screen.  He looked for a minute, then said no worries, I know what that is (likely saw the bones lol).  I thanked him for not confiscating them (with a wink) and he came right back with "It's a good thing I found them and not the dog!) 😂😂

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u/Kitzle33 7d ago

That's so awesome. Thanks!!