At LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal, both arriving and departing passengers can volunteer to be screened. Such screening can be helpful in checking the spread of COVID-19, but experts caution that there are limitations.
Thermal cameras detect surface skin temperature, and that can vary.
“People are always running in an airport, with luggage, and these cameras are sensitive to body heat. If you just sprinted along the terminal, your body scan is going to look different from a normal one,” says Karen Panetta, IEEE fellow and dean of graduate education at Tufts University School of Engineering. “This is Los Angeles, and everyone who goes in wearing makeup or sunscreen will either record much lower, which isn’t good, or much higher, and you’ll end up pulling everybody aside.”
Taking a Layered Approach to Airport Screening
Given the limitations, aviation industry officials say the thermal screen is part of a broader vision of airport safety.
“Temperature screening can be part of a layered approach to reducing the risk of infection during air travel, in conjunction with other measures such as physical distancing, face coverings, and increased sanitation and cleaning,” says Perry Flint, spokesperson for the International Air Transport Association.
The jury is still out at Airports Council International – North America, an industry advocacy group. “We have not yet seen the medical evidence to support the benefit of temperature checks,” says Christopher Bidwell, senior vice president for security.