People shocked after passenger filmed as their phone went through X-ray scanner at airport

If there's one thing we all know, it's don't mess around with airport security. Heading to the airport is stressful enough as is, but then we have to deal with security, making sure our electronics are out, there are no liquids over 100 milliliters, and then having to go through those dreaded scanners.

Airport security has tightened up in a post-9/11 world, and initially, we were subjected to some pretty invasive scanners.

Things are a little more private these days, although we've still warned you about embarrassing situations with male erections and women's crotches.

Now, one passenger has gone viral, filming their airport experience before boarding the plane.

The Reddit thread shows a 33-second clip where one US passenger set their phone to film as it went through the scanner.

While admittedly not the most riveting footage, you see the moment where the X-rays blast the phone, and the screen shows interference.

Airport scanners are more sophisticated than ever in 2025 (onurdongel / Getty)

Responding to the nerdy look behind the scenes at airport security, one person said: "It's cool that you can see the fuzziness/grey pixels that often accompany footage from film or digital cameras that record around radioactive material."

Another added: "That's really cool & probably illegal ish. Edit: don't delete the video. It's way too cool to be deleted." The OP then responded, saying they asked the TSA if they could film and were told yes.

A third said: "Thank you for doing this. This is the coolest video I've ever seen. Reminded me of that scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey."

Elsewhere in the thread, someone shared their own horror story, referring to a separate incident where someone in front put a cake through the scanner and it ended up all over other passengers' luggage. Apparently, the cake passed through the rubber curtains and dragged the icing off the top. When other luggage went through, it was smeared with the icing.

Others were concerned about us being bombarded with radiation as we go through scanners, but in reality, body scanners work differently.

Typically, the full body scanners use millimeterwave radiation that is non-ionizing, can't damage your DNA, and barely goes deeper than your clothes. As for metal detectors, they use magnetic fields to determine if you've got metal on you.

Speaking to the BBC, Professor Nick Bowring explained just how sophisticated X-rays and body scanners have become these days: "They illuminate the bags from various angles with various energies of X-rays. All the different materials are represented with different pseudo colours.

"Metal, for example, tends to come out blue; organic material tends to come out orange; lighter metals tend to come out green.

"That can be interpreted automatically by fairly advanced software which says this bag has maybe an undue amount of metal or organic material."