Controversial X-Ray Scanners at American Airport to be Replaced

Transportation Security Administration screener Marlon Tejada, left, watches as Randy Parsons, 

TSA acting Federal Security Director, right, goes through a full body X-ray scanner 

for a security screening (File Photo)

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration says it is removing full-body airport scanners that produced what appear to be naked images of a traveler's body.

The TSA said it will replace the scanners with new scanners that allow greater privacy.

The TSA has canceled its contract with Rapiscan, the company that makes the X-ray scanner that produced the revealing body images.  The TSA has 174 Rapiscan scanners at about 30 airports.

Rapiscan failed to meet a congressional deadline to deliver software to protect the privacy of passengers.

TSA spokesman David Catelveter said the Rapiscan scanners will be largely replaced by scanners made by L-3 Communications. L-3 scanners, already in use at some airports, produce a generic outline of passengers' bodies instead of what appear to be naked images.  

TSA had increasingly relied on the full-body scanners after a man allegedly tried to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear aboard a transatlantic flight in December 2009.  The bomb set off a rush to upgrade security to detect explosives underneath clothing.

Some airline passengers considered the X-ray images an invasion of privacy.