More attention paid to luggage security at airports

Published 20 January 2006

The recent evacuation of a terminal at San Francisco airport draws even more attention to the need for explosive detection at airports

We have written several stories about how explosive detection has moved up on the agenda of the Transportation Security Administration (relative, say, to looking for scissors and small knives in passengers carry-on luggage). The Coalition for Luggage Security agrees. After the evacuation of Terminal 3 at the San Francisco International Airport following the spotting of a suspicious item, Harvey Abelson, the Coalition director, said: “The Coalition for Luggage Security is seeing more and more news stories everyday concerning potential luggage threats. The threat of explosives or weapons in luggage is not only a hazard in the air, but in crowded terminals as well. Everyday we see suicide bombers and other terror threats carried out in heavily populated foreign venues. Airport terminals have the potential for becoming as deadly a venue as any.” Richard Altomare, founder and chairman of the Coalition, and CEO of Universal Express (OTCBB: USXP), agrees: “Threats that we see are mainly from luggage, whether it’s in the terminal or in airplanes cargo hold. Crowded terminals are as much in danger as crowded planes.”

-read more in this report; in Richard Altomare’s article; also see the Coalition Web site; and see this Cialition white paper on luggage security