Woman issues airport security warning after priceless item left ‘destroyed’

A woman has issued a stark warning to anyone travelling through airport security after a priceless item in her hand luggage ended up being completely 'destroyed'.

Many would imagine that packing valuable items in hand luggage rather than checked-in baggage is, all in all, a safer option, but one traveller recently found out the hard way that this isn't always the case.

TikTok user Magdala travelled from New York to Edinburgh and back again when she put her Kodak Fun Saver disposable camera in her hand luggage.

At the time she didn't think anything of it, but disaster struck weeks later when she took the film to be developed.

After discovering all her photos had turned incredibly grainy and difficult to see, she realised the film had been damaged by the airport scanners.

Taking to TikTok, she warned other users: "PSA, airport security X-rays destroy film even in little s**t disposable cameras and you lose everything. 39 grained moments but ones you can't get back."

Magadala's warning comes after several UK airports implemented highly advanced (computed tomography) CT scanners, which allow travellers to leave all electronics and liquids in their hand luggage while going through security.

The CT scanners also allow people to take up to two litres of liquid through security instead of being forced to limit their liquids to 100mls.

Edinburgh is one of the airports to have introduced the new scanners, so its likely these CT scanners were the culprit for the damaged film.

Most disposable cameras use IOS 800 or higher speed film, which means they're more sensitive to light, making them incredibly vulnerable to X-ray exposure, a travel expert from Travel Republic has warned.

While traditional X-ray scanners in airports tend to emit lower doses of X-rays, the new CT scanners use a significantly stronger and more penetrating X-ray beam to create multiple images from different angles.

As a result, this can create a fog or a haze on the film even after just going through the scanner once.

What can you do about it?

If you know you're heading through an airport with the new CT scanners, you can ask airport security to do a hand check of your camera while the rest of your items go through the machine.

You can put your camera in a clear plastic bag labelled 'undeveloped film, please hand check', and most airport security teams should be willing to oblige.

Meanwhile, the one thing you should absolutely avoid is putting your camera and film in your hold luggage instead, as this goes through an even stronger X-ray scanner, which means you could see even more damage than if it were to go through hand luggage.