SJC TSA: “Flight crews on duty don’t go through the scanner”

Another WOW from TSA. So I was on my usual travel from San Jose back home. As usual, I refused to go through the millimeter wave detection scanner (also known as “cancer machine”). While being searched and patted down, I saw a full flight crew walking through the metal detector instead of the empty (!!!) scanner (there was no line at all).

They were also neither patted down nor searched. So I asked about that. The agent replied “Flight crews on duty never go through the scanner.”. First, I asked how they know that they’re flight crews (cf. “Catch me if you can”). Well, apparently a uniform and some form of plastic badge is ok (no list or barcode or anything). I didn’t get a reply to my question “why” (especially if there was no line!) :-).

I guess people dressed up in uniforms with some form of airline ID are much more trustworthy than other fellow travelers. Also, this may be some for of admitting that those scanners are affecting people’s health. Well well.