• Logan to use see-through scanners on passengers

    Machines using backscatter and millimeter wave technology will scan passengers’ bodies for weapons and contraband — with TSA promising that privacy concerns which greeted the technologies early on have been addressed

  • Delta's passengers can pay for faster security check

    Delta will offer its passengers the option of paying $128 a year for speedier security lines; Delta has hired Verified Identity Pass to enroll passengers in Registered Traveler and operate the lines

  • Plane wings made of glass

    Researchers learn more about the atomic structure of glass, offering the possibility of constructing plane wings — and other things — with glass rather than metal, thus avoiding the danger of metal fatigue

  • Air passnegers now must show an ID to be allowed on board

    Until this past weekend, a passenger who agreed to secondary search of his or her body and baggage at airport check-points was allowed to board even if they did not have — or refused to show — an ID; this policy was changed on Saturday

  • Cargo security front and center at coming IATA meeting

    The air cargo industry has a compelling business motive to protect its longevity by ensuring it is a fast, reliable, secure means of moving freight globally, and a moral duty to safeguard human life

  • TSA launches news airport airside and perimeter security

    Billions of dollars have been invested in — and strict regulations promulgated for — passenger and baggage screening to prevent explosives from being taken on board; very little money has been invested in and no specific mandates imposed regarding airport perimeter security; TSA is changing this — and also takes the next essential step: coordination among the different money bodies involved in airport perimeter security

  • DHS experiments with testing planes for radioactive cargo

    In an effort to prevent terrorists from bringing radioactive materials into the United States on planes, DHS engages in 4-month, $4 million test to see whether the government’s radiation-detection equipment can pick up depleted uranium and other radioactive material hidden aboard passenger planes

  • OMG helps UAVs see as human pilots do

    Northrop Grumman tests Oxford Metrics Group’s software which make UAVs “see” things the way a human pilot would

  • Problem for New Zealand aviation: Laser attacks

    Kiwi aviation authorities are worried about a plague of laser attacks on planes coming in for landing at the country’s airports — especially the very busy Wellington facility; laser emiiters are more powerful now and more readily available, and bathing the cockpit with green laser beam my temporarily blind pilots as they approach the airport

  • U.K. governmet report reveals incidents of toxic fumes on planes

    Pilots had to wear emergency oxygen masks in flight due to toxic fumes; last year 116 “contaminated air events” reported to the Civil Aviation Authority

  • Smiths Detection in $25 million TSA contract

    The Transportation Security Administration awards Smiths Detection a $25 million follow-on contract for the company’s Advanced Threat Identification X-Ray (aTiX) systems

  • Airlines buy plane spare parts on line

    More questions about airline safety: Not only do many U.S. airlines have maintenance work on their planes done by abroad in shops which are not properly inspected by the FAA — many also buy spare parts on-line from suplliers not inspected ar approved by the FAA; some airlines buy spare parts on Craigslist

  • Airlines may be forced to fit antiterror cameras in seats

    The EU moves across a broad front to increase air travel safety; airlines will be forced to install spy-in-the-cabin cameras and increase the use of biometrics technology for passenger identification

  • DHS launches 3 transportation initiatives

    The Global Entry pilot program, the Passenger Service Program, and an expanded Model Ports Initiative, intended to strengthen customer service at U.S. ports of entry

  • Electronic pre-registration for Visa Waiver travelers

    DHS says that beginning 1 January 2009, passengers traveling to the United States from Visa Waiver Program countries will have to register online at least 72-hours before embarking on their trip; critics see problems