Disney World installs TSA-style full body scanners (but don't worry, they're only fake)



By the time they arrive at Disney World, families would normally expect they'd seen the last of TSA's infamously rigorous full-body scans.

Instead when they enter one of the revamped rides in Orlando, Florida, they'll find themselves subject to apparently stringent checks - at the hands of two Star Wars droids.

But in fact the scans are fakes, designed by Disney as a joke at TSA's expense for fans waiting to enter the new simulator, Star Wars: The Adventures Continue.

Opening: Star Wars director George Lucas, centre right, opened the revamped simulator at the weekend, 24 years after it first welcomed visitors in 1987

The satirical security checks have been installed just weeks after TSA faced a barrage of criticism because its staff gave full-body pat-downs to a baby, a six-year-old girl - and even an eight-year-old boy on his way to Disneyland.

They have been placed near the entrance to the historic ride, which was opened by Star Wars director George Lucas at the weekend after a revamp.

The crowds of fans who lined up for hours - in full costume - were ushered into two rooms, the second of which has been mocked up as an airport security checkpoint.

The two droids inside, G2-9T and G2-4T, were used in the old simulator, but they have now been modified to satirise TSA's more stringent security.

Dedicated: Fans in full costume lined up for hours to be first on the new ride

According to Disney, visitors will 'enjoy paying a lot of attention to what the scans of the luggage show inside' as they are 'scanned' by G2-9T.

Then they will move forward to be scanned by the other droid - and will find themselves subject to a fake version of the thermal body imaging installed at American airports.

The droids may even shout at people as they file past, mocking the agents who take passengers to one side.



Disney has been quick to assure visitors the scans are meant only as a parody, and says the thermal images use are not a real security scan.

Controversy: TSA attracted criticism after its agents subjected six-year-old Anna Drexel to an invasive full-body scan at Kentucky airport

According to the New York Post, the checkpoint has so far been attracting laughs rather than groans as families encounter yet more checks.

Earlier this month TSA agents attracted controversy after a video circulated of two agents laughing as they patted down a toddler at Kansas City International Airport.

And earlier this month, six-year-old Anna Drexel burst into tears after she was given an invasive body search at Kentucky airport.

