UK disputes Shah Rukh's claim on body scanners

Prasun Sonwalkar

London, Feb 11 (PTI) Britain's airport officials have
disputed the claim by Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan on a popular
television show last week that his naked image taken from body
scanners at the Heathrow airport were printed and circulated
by staff.
Khan claimed on the BBC prime time 'Friday Night with
Jonathan Ross' show that female security staff at the airport
had printed his naked image from the newly-installed body
scanner and that he had autographed them.
However, the British Airports Authority (BAA) said the
claim was 'completely factually incorrect' because the
body-scanning equipment had no capability to print images.
Also, the images captured by the equipment could not be
stored or distributed in any form, a BAA spokeswoman said.
Speaking on the widely-watched show, Khan said, "I'm
always stopped by the security, because of the name. And I
think its okay: the western world is a little bit worried,
paranoid and touchy, I guess, and freely when they're frisking
you".
Khan, who was on a visit here to promote his new film
,'My Name Is Khan', added, "I was in London recently going
through the airport and these new machines have come up, the
body scans. You've got to see them. It makes you embarrassed –
if you're not well endowed".

"You walk into the machine and everything, the whole
outline of your body comes out. I was a little scared.
Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out. Then I
saw these girls – they had these printouts. I looked at them.
I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said 'give
them to me' and you could see everything inside. So I
autographed them for them".
The BAA spokeswoman said the scanners had only been
brought into use four days before the chat show was recorded
and was only used for departing passengers, making it unlikely
that Khan would have been put through them.
She added that said there would be no investigation into
Khan's claims because they "simply could not be true".
The decision to install body scanners at UK airports was
taken in the wake of the transatlantic Christmas Day terror
attack on a plane as it neared Detroit. PTI PS