Dunedin Airport has been trialling body imaging screening in domestic airports in a bid to make flyer safer.
The new technology makes it easier for security workers to find items such as plastic explosives.
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"It's a huge increase in safety," Aviation Security Services group manager of operations Karen Irwin told Magic Talk Tuesday afternoon.
"It picks up non-metallic items, whereas the old walkthrough only picked up metallic items."
Although security officers are primarily looking for dangerous items, Irwin says they often come across many other, more interesting, items as they search passengers.
"Lord, we have found some odd things," said Irwin.
"We've found people travelling with balls and chains, people with literally boxes of fireworks."
Irwin says one person was found trying to board a plane with a two-litre can of petrol.
"One man decided he would decant the left-over petrol from his rental car because he didn't want the rental car company to have it."
Another surprise find was someone who had $2 million on them.
"When we investigated it turned out he was a lucky winner at SkyCity," Irwin said.
"It's never a dull day."
Although security doesn't go out of their way to look for drugs, it was not uncommon to find them, and police and customs officials were always called in the event of their discovery.
Irwin said no personal information was stored from passengers. When people were screened, security personnel could only see a generic outline of a person that "looks like a gingerbread man", with any out-of-the-ordinary items appearing as yellow boxes on the screen.
The next airport to use the technology will be Christchurch Airport, with other domestic airports also planned to follow suit.
Newshub.
