I always get false positives from these things, and need a pat down.
The last time (4 days ago) I was wearing a cotton shirt with plastic buttons, a tee-shirt under my cotton shirt, jeans, cotton undies and wool socks. I have no implants of metal or any other material.
They always seem to ‘tag’ my upper arms, shoulders and chest. The last time TSA was sure I was wearing a neckless (I wasn’t and never have)
I wonder if it has something to do with sweat (read that on wiki). I do carry a small back pack through the airport, but don’t sweat unless under exertion.
I’m a 55 year old male, 210 lbs and pretty tall at 6’3".
It’s not really an issue, the pat down has been professional and non intrusive, but was wondering if others always trigger these things, and if it’s always a certain area on your body.
I get them all the time too including yesterday. The khaki pants that I usually wear have internal pockets with zippers that apparently light up like a series of bomb wires on the display. I get pulled aside and get a quick pat-down in the upper thigh area. I just consider it a free massage although, frankly, I would rather have it done by someone other than the old guy that did it to me yesterday because he was certainly not my type.
My wife always gets tagged for a pat down too. Always. Doesn’t matter what airport. It’s driven her to distraction trying to figure out why.
We just got back an hour ago from spending 4 days in Boston (great place for the 4th, BTW. Hadn’t been there since '04). Both on the way there and back she had to get patted down. Next trip is to Memphis over labor Day weekend. A zillion $$$ says she’ll get patted down on both legs of the trip.
I’m similar size to you and haven’t had a problem with them.
I wear a silver necklace as well as some other jewelry and no issues.
I did get called back once because I was a bit sweaty between the shoulder blades and that must have showed up on the screen so after I walked out of it, I got called back briefly.
Could you per chance have unusually large tits? Last time I want through my jeans were a bit too long and I was slightly stepping over them with my heel making a small mass of cloth under my foot. They immediately started hand scanning my calves. I think the computer algorithms tag body regions that seem to have unusual bulky masses, in proportion to the expected body shape.
On several recent flights, they’ve given me a pat down on my thighs and I read somewhere that fat shows up in a way to trigger their sensors. Also, on the most recent flight, they patted down the collar of my polo shirt, which was a little thicker than the rest of the shirt. So yes, they do seem to ping on bulky masses.
I’m annoyed that I have to remove the handkerchief from my pocket. It’s made of the same damned material as the pants themselves.
I’ve been on about 15 international segments in the past year, and can’t say that any part of it was particularly repetitious or unpredictable. A few times I was asked to take off my shoes, often my belt. My white cane is always inspected separately. If there is a pat-down, its perfunctory. I travel carry-on only, no checked bags ,and the inspection of my baggage seems very casual, often they don’t even unzip it. A couple of times they asked to see my fluid containers, and just glanced at them in my hand. USA TSA no better or worse than anywhere else.
I’m 6’6" and I’ve only set of the scanner on one of the last 6 legs I’ve flow this year. It was upper thigh and I was wearing some particularly baggy jeans and didn’t want to stay up once I removed my belt. Normally for work I’m cloth shorts and tee shirt and then I change once I’m there and I don’t have any problems.
My guess is your type of clothing tends to bunch when you raise your arms and that looks like a mass on the scanner.
I have an artificial ankle joint (think hip replacement, but in my ankle). It’s about 50/50 whether the machine beeps on my foot. I love how they feel compelled to rub their hands on my bare foot just to make sure there’s not a gun in there… under the skin… or something. LOL!
We’ve managed to avoid the scanners by asking if the kids can go through the metal detectors. They let us stay with the kids so we get to go through the metal detectors too. One time my wife took both kids through the metal detectors so I had to go through the scanner. Now we pretend that we’re not together and take one kid each. They’re 12 and 13 now so I doubt that we’ll be able to get away with this for many more years.
I wear the same metal-free outfit every time I go through security, and I get stopped about half the time for something around my pelvic bones. One time the woman who was doing the pat down was actually surprised to realize that the hard object she felt was my pelvis. Last time they did suggest that I pull my pants up further, so maybe it’s a combination of bones sticking out and pants bunching in that area.
Just thinking aloud here - I wonder if any facial recognition software is used, and those like the OP who have frequent extra checks might look similar to a suspicious person?