Airport security and metal plates

[OurChristmasMiracle]

Hi all, I’m a first time flyer so I have absolutely no idea how it all really works. I wanted to know if the metal detectors would go off for me- I’ve 2 metal plates with screws one in my shoulder and one on my ankle and I’ve had tubal ligation via metal clips too so I have quite a lot of metal in me.

I just wondered if anyone knew whether this would cause issues with airport security and if there’s anything I can do to make the process easier?

It shouldn’t but even if they do go
off all that happens is they give you a pat down and you can tell them about the plating.

And if you go through a full body scanner, they'll be able to see what they are.

My mum takes a letter from her GP when she travels, but I don't think they'd ever asked for it. The full body scanners will show up your metal work and as someone else said- if needed, they'll pat you down. Enjoy your trip.

I get stopped and frisked at Gatwick and Heathrow but not as often on return flights. It's no big deal.

Why not just tell them and they will pat you down instead of putting you through the metal detector scanner?

The newer full body scanners where you stand up will just identify any metals and everyone uses them whether they have metal plates, replacement joints, pacemakers etc. They are not in all airports yet though.

Well you would have paperwork to take to them and communicate with them, just walking through would be odd

Not necessarily so. I have two plates in my right arm following a serious break back in 2016 and have no paperwork for them. None has ever been asked for either.

The only airport security scanners I have ever set off were at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The only thing then required was a quick rescan with a hand held scanner and a quick pat down by hand. Nothing else though I did tell them where the plates were and why.

It will be fine, OP. People with metalwork in various parts of their bodies and with prosthetic joints and limbs travel every day.

They shouldn’t. Both DD and I have an impressive array of metalwork in our backs and neither of us sets off airport scanners. Even if you do set them off (sometimes the algorithm sets them off for a random check) it’s no big deal, they’ll do a pat down and you’ll be on your way.

Thank you.

I am of course going to tell them but having multiple metal pieces in different places did make me wonder how it would work for me.

Not odd in the slightest, they couldn’t care less about any paperwork (hospitals don’t even provide it anymore as it’s just not necessary!) and you’d be treated + scanned like any other passenger. Source: metal rods + screws in my spine and a pilot DH.

You don't need to tell them at all unless they ask you. I never do.

If it's a big airport you are using (I use Stansted regularly) then I think you will find that the security area is often so busy and frenetic that there won't actually be the opportunity to talk to staff unless for any reason they do need to call you aside. They are behind the conveyor belts and machinery with only a few of them guiding the flow of customers through (as fast as they can). You will just be moved on and through.

Loads of people have metalwork in them and travel every day. It's rarely an issue.

I've got a titanium player in my head, and it's never set the airport scanner off.

Underwired bra, on the other hand has.

Plate, not player 😂

Airport body scanners don't detect metal inside the body only hidden on the surface under clothing.

The internal scanning ones are only used in prisons and places like diamond mines.

I've got metal knee and metal hip replacements and find its totally random whether the beepers go off or not. I just slap my bum and knee and say 'replacements' and they whizz the wand thing over the rest of me and send me on my way. Only once (Faro) I had to roll up a trouser leg to show my long knee scar.

Sometimes I set the detectors off, but most often not. I just show them the scars (fortunately on parts of my body I can expose in public!) and it's never been an issue. Although one woman in security at JFK did squeeze my arm so hard she made me wince.

You should be OK, if not as others have said it won’t cause a major problem.

The underwires in Panache bras have sometimes triggered alarms with me. I think most other brands must use plastic.