There has been a lot of debate recently on what is the best line of defense against terrorists at airports. Some people think, with all the new screening technology, machines are the best way to go. Others have always felt that nothing is a better line of defense than a good old fashion human hand pat down search. However, experts are now saying that the human pat down may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Aviation experts have recently said that pat downs are often very ineffective. A lot of this is due in part to the government rules covering where screeners can put their hands and how frequently they can frisk a passenger. Thus, if a man was trying to smuggle on a bomb to blow up a jet, the bomb more than likely would not be found if it was hidden in the crotch area.

An industry analyst, Michael Boyd, said that to have people hold up their arms and just pat them is not really a line of defense. Pretty much, people known where officials can and cannot pat down, and thus, this makes it easy to smuggle weapons.

Either way, most travelers at United States airports never even get patted down when they pass through security. A metal detector has to be set off first, and then the screen would need to find out what triggered the alarm. Even if it does lead to a pat down, this is simply just the screener lightly tapping the passenger’s arm, legs, and clothing.

However, if the passenger is carrying something nonmetallic, which could still be a bomb, it would not set off metal detectors, and thus, a pat down would not even take place. Unlike a frisking, which is done by a cop and involves running the hand very firmly around the whole body, including the groin buttocks and breasts, a pat down at the airport usually only involves a “pat down.”