The first passengers to be ordered through full body scanners at Manchester Airport have backed the radical security shake-up.

From noon yesterday travellers who are chosen to be scanned must participate or they will not be able to board their plane.

The permanent introduction of the controversial scanners, which was announced by transport secretary Lord Adonis in the House of Commons, comes in the wake of a failed attempt to blow up a transatlantic jet over the United States on Christmas Day.

Fears over complacent anti-terror fight

Airport bosses insist that the measure is necessary to ensure the safety of passengers and told the M.E.N. that those selected would not be chosen on the basis of race, religion or ethnicity.

But human rights campaigners argue that the technology, which shows up false limbs and breast implants, creates 'indecent' images and could compromise passengers' privacy.

Alex Deane, director of the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: “People are understandably afraid of terrorism. But we didn't allow the IRA to impede our freedoms or change our way of life and we shouldn't change now either.

Expose

“Those upset by the prospect of undergoing these scans shouldn't be forced to choose between their dignity and their flight. When we are forced to expose ourselves at the airport in order to go on holiday, the terrorists have won.”

One of the £80,000 Rapiscan devices has been on trial in Terminal Two since November, with two more scanners – one each for Terminals One and Three – set to be delivered this week and in use by the end of the month.

In the first hour after the machine was made compulsory around 60 people – roughly one a minute – were scanned at Manchester.

The airport says passengers will be selected if they alert the suspicion of security officers following a hand search or unsolved metal detection alarm. They will also go through if explosive or vapour trace detection equipment causes an alarm to sound or if they request a private search prior to or after passing through the walk-through metal detection equipment.

Andrew Mark, 46, and partner Pakize Durmaz, 34, from Wolverhampton, were among the first to be selected to be scanned.

Andrew said: “I think anything that improves security is a great idea and we were quite happy to be scanned. The threat level from terrorism has gone up so it seems logical that the level of security has gone up too. We have nothing to hide so it's not a problem. It didn't seem to hold us up either as it only takes a few seconds.”

His partner also backed the use of scanners but called on airport staff to explain to passengers why they had been chosen.

Random

She added: “The process is really easy and I felt comfortable going through it but I didn't really know what they were doing. They told us we had been chosen at random but I think they should give better reasons why people are picked.”

The airport's head of customer experience, Sarah Barrett, said: “We are really pleased with the reaction. People have welcomed it and say it makes them feel safer as it shows we are taking security seriously.

“We want to reassure people that we are not profiling passengers at the moment. Passengers are selected for scanning at random.”

But aviation security analyst Chris Yates, who is based in Bolton, believes it won't be long before passengers are selected because of their past travel history or behaviour when they are passing through security.

He said: “There will be passenger profiling in the future, especially on US-bound flights, but body scanning is not a silver bullet and is only one tool that should be used to improve security. The issue of liquids must also be looked at and I am expecting more changes to be made to security by 2011.”