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.
The 52-year-old, a renowned speaker, company director and bestselling author, was heading to the British Airways lounge before a flight to Dublin last Wednesday for a board meeting of a FTSE-listed company. He says as a frequent traveller he has been selected for additional searches at airports on 50% of trips.
However, Amaechi said he had never before been told he was “too big” at security. He said: “I am a 6ft 9in black man standing in security, clearly not able to move on from my free will – and the passengers in that salubrious part of the airport are looking at me, like what’s he done, as I stand there for 12-15 minutes before any one shows up.
“Then you go into a private room where two men watch you while you are searched – more invasive than when people can see you. The idea that a random beep can escalate to that seems outrageous to me.”
Heathrow said it was investigating the incident. The airport declined to answer if there was any maximum height for passengers to pass through its scanners. Amaechi said they were “standard scanners. I’ve been in them many times.”
After Amaechi tweeted about the incident, the white British champion rower Matthew Pinsent replied: “Data point from a similar sized bloke. I have never been selected for ‘private’ search at a UK airport. Didn’t even know they existed.”
Other replies from people of colour echoed long-running experiences of being similarly “randomly selected” for additional searches.
Amaechi told the Guardian: “I’m extraordinarily privileged. It exercises me so much because I recognise that if it’s happened to me – good lord, what is it like for everyone else? No amount of education or preparation can prevent this.”
Amaechi said that two of the three security officers, who were Asian, were “polite, courteous, empathetic” and “apologetic and understood my humiliation, I think, out of personal experience”.
But he said: “They were part of a system that says some people look like trouble and some people don’t. It’s not Heathrow’s problem in terms of its source – but it is in Heathrow’s gift to change how they respond.”
He compared it with previous experiences of being stopped and searched – including while wearing a suit. “A random beep should not lead to a point to where the world passes me by for 15 minutes and wonders what act I have committed … They’re all wondering what I’ve done, because most of these people have never been stopped.”
He said he had no trouble entering the US, often regarded as having the most stringent borders, after going through the process for its global entry programme. He said: “I would happily have a conversation with UK border agency in the same way if I could escape this – it’s not about the time, it’s not about the process, it’s about the humiliation.”
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We understand that being called for additional security checks can have an impact on a passenger’s experience at the airport, and this will only ever happen for reasons of security. Whenever this is needed, we will invite the passenger to a private room so these checks can take place promptly and in private.
“We want everyone to feel welcome at Heathrow, whether they are a passenger or colleague, and want to reassure that additional screening will only take place for reasons of security.”
