New AI software in airports across the United Kingdom are off to a bumpy start as CT scanners are mistakenly misidentifying many safe household items — with one of them being children's medicine. This new technology is now wasting more time for travelers than it's saving, leaving the major airports and airlines with ways to think of workarounds.

A Prescription For Panic

Families are constantly being stopped at a handful of U.K. airports over new CT scanners identifying children's medicine as "explosives". Among this medicine is the children's suspension Calpol and other liquid paracetamols. As these medical products are completely safe and legal to take through security checkpoints, the new systems seem to be experiencing glitches by not giving this medicine the "okay" to travelers that carry it.

Among the airports affected are Southend, London City, Newcastle, and Aberdeen.

Every time Calpol has been detected, these new security kits, which have cost airports more than £2,000,000 each to implement, are causing passengers to wait until security personnel checks their belongings individually.

A security source from an unnamed airport spoke to The Sun regarding this huge technical error:

“Calpol and other liquid nurofens are instantly being rejected. It’s causing huge queues as families always travel with the medicine...It’s only recently that we’ve been able to hand them back to passengers. Before that, we’d have to throw them away and tell families to buy more in the departure lounge."

The new CT scanners have been meant to accelerate the security process for travelers by examining content inside bags without their owners having to take items such as liquids and electronics out. 

These new systems were also supposed to be the end of a 100 ml liquid limit, with airports originally allowing travelers to carry up to two liters with the new technology in place. But with these systems not working as intended, airports have encouraged travelers to still carry less than 100 ml of liquid. This limit was first imposed in 2006 after a terror plot came to light involving liquid bombs devised to sabotage a flight to the United States.

The U.K.'s Department for Transport have set a deadline for the new scanners to be fully functional on June 1st, with Birmingham Airport being the first airport to have the systems in May. Any airports in the U.K that missed the deadline will have to wait until next year to implement them. International airports such as Manchester, Gatwick, and Heathrow have faced delays in the new technology due to the overwhelming number of passengers each airport gets daily.

A Department for Transport representative told The Sun:

“Passengers should continue to check security requirements with airports before they travel and come prepared with liquids no larger than 100mL in hand baggage.”
 

The new security kits have so far been uneventful for airports, as passengers had to face queue times of up to three hours during the summer. At that time, however, Birmingham Airport spokespeople blamed the long wait times on ongoing construction throughout the facility. 

It's not known at this time when an update might come for the glitches to be fixed and for the scanners to recognize the medicine as safe.