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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent

Ex-basketball player John Amaechi tells of ‘humiliating’ Heathrow search

John Amaechi
‘It exercises me so much because I recognise that if it’s happened to me – good lord, what is it like for everyone else?’ asked Amaechi. Photograph: Anselm Ebulue/Anselm Ebulue / The Guardian

The psychologist and ex-basketball player John Amaechi said he was left feeling furious and humiliated after being privately searched at Heathrow airport, having been told he was too big for the security scanners.

Amaechi said he had the invasive search after first being “randomly selected” by a beep from a security arch. Staff blamed his height when he was flagged by a second scanner in the first-class security queue at Terminal 5.

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