An airport scanner to end laptop, liquid ban

It uses CT-scan technology that is better at spotting explosives, weapons

Manufacturers of airport security equipment have a message for travellers who fear they will have to give up laptops and tablet computers on international flights: They have a solution.

At least four of the largest companies making screening devices say they are developing scanners so much better at detecting explosives than existing X-ray machines that passengers could leave laptops, other electronics and even liquids in their bags, vastly simplifying airport security.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Joseph Paresi, chief executive officer of Integrated Defence & Security Solutions Inc, which has developed one of the new scanning machines that has passed initial US government testing. “It’s not if. It’s when it’s going to happen.”

But the speed with which US, European and other security agencies can put them into widespread use remains an open question. After being burned by attempts to roll out new screening equipment in the past — such as having to warehouse hundreds of so-called puffer machines designed to detect explosives because they didn’t perform well in real-world conditions a decade ago — the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has instituted multiple layers of performance tests.

And Congress hasn’t appropriated funds for large purchases of the machines. Adding the devices, which list for several hundred thousand dollars each, at thousands of airport security lines in just the US could cost $1 billion or more.

The US Department of Homeland Security in March banned electronic devices larger than a mobile phone from airliner cabins on flights from 10 Middle East and North Africa airports to the US, citing concerns that terrorists had created ways to conceal explosives in them. Since then, the agency has been considering expanding the ban to Europe — over the objections of the European Commission and air carriers.

At the same time, TSA is conducting tests of closer screening procedures for electronics at 10 US airports with an eye towards expanding them nationwide.

Groups representing airlines and airports say they are hopeful that new technology could ease the need for the new security measures.

“The ban on large personal electronic devices in the cabin has certainly highlighted the importance of governments stepping up their support for more capable checkpoint screening technology to respond to emerging threats,” Perry Flint, spokesman for the International Air Transport Association trade group, said in an interview. IATA represents 265 airlines around the world.

There is optimism over the ability of these machines — which borrow computed tomography or CT scan technology from the medical world to create a high-definition, three-dimension view inside a bag — to address the new threats.

© Bloomberg