A TSA representative is speaking out after a TikToker went viral claiming that those with blessed behinds are more prone to setting off alarms at airport security.
Getting through the airport security check-in is always a bit of a headache, but one woman claims it might be even more difficult if you have a big behind.
TikToker Alyse Carolyn has racked up over 200K views after saying her husband, a TSA agent, claimed that those with “blessed posteriors” tend to “set off the [body scanner] more often than not.”
“I feel like this is something we need to test out, everybody,” Carolyn urged. “If you’ve got a fat ass, next time you go to the airport, please tell me: Did you set off the X-Ray machine?”
Commenters began sharing their own experiences with airport security, with quite a few claiming they set off alarms frequently due to their curves.
“Yes. It happens often. Always sets off the crotch area. Not every time, but often enough,” one user wrote.
“I always set off the X-Ray machine,” another said. “They say I have an ‘irregularity in the groin area.’”
However, the TSA itself says otherwise. In a statement provided to the New York Post, a TSA spokesperson denied that big booties can set off false alarms at airport security.
“TSA cannot verify the authenticity of claims made on TikTok without more context about the time and place where security screening occurred,” they said.
“However, I can verify that TSA’s on-person screening technology effectively screens diverse populations of travelers every day. During development, TSA on-person screening algorithms were trained to recognize body composition.”
Airport security is tight – and sometimes body scanners can pick up on the wrong things, experts say.
While TSA body scanners are meant to detect “metallic and nonmetallic threat items,” they can be set off by things like thick hair, especially if it’s in an updo, body piercings, or even underwire in bras.
However, perspiration can also set off a body scanner — something that might happen if it’s a hot day and your badonkadonk is getting a little bit sweaty.
“Perspiration is probably the weirdest thing that can set off the scanners,” author Malvini Redden said in an interview with the Reader’s Digest. “It has to do with millimeter wave technology and how the waves bounce off water.”
This is just the latest airplane-related fiasco to go viral after a man discovered a “downstairs” bathroom on his flight earlier this month.