More U.S. airports deploy body scanners; new scanners -- and 40 existing ones -- used for primary screening

The U.S Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday announced nine more U.S. airports that will receive body-scanning technology. TSA security director Lee Kair said units will be fielded in the coming months at Fort Lauderdale, Florida; San Jose, California; Columbus, Ohio; San Diego; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Oakland, California; and Kansas City. They will join three machines going online Monday at Boston’s Logan International Airport, and one being deployed next week at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

The machines are among 150 units bought with money from the federal stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama last year. They join 40 machines already in use at 19 U.S. airports.

AP reports that both the new and existing machines will also now be used for primary screening, meaning they will be the default screening equipment passengers face at a checkpoint. The existing machines have been used for secondary screening, that is, they were being used only when a passenger failed a metal screening or posed some other risk factor.

Passengers retain the right to opt out of a body scanning for a more intense but traditional screening. The AP timed a body scanning at 25 seconds, and Kair said he did not expect them to take any longer than a passenger would have to otherwise wait for the X-ray of carry-on bags.

Deployment of the machines was announced in the fall, before Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day with explosives concealed in his underwear. Even so, that event highlighted the need for additional security in the U.S. aviation system.

Other countries have also signed on to use the technology, including Nigeria and the Netherlands, where Abdulmutallab started his flight and then connected to the United States.

TSA officials said that the units will not be able to print or store images, and that the officer viewing them will have no contact with passengers. The passenger will remain at the checkpoint until the officer in the viewing room radios an all-clear to another officer standing with the passenger. Passengers who accept a scan — and pass — will not have to walk through a metal detector or other security equipment. Those who decline will have to walk through a metal detector and also submit to a patdown.

Kair said he was confident terrorists could not concentrate on beating the patdown because of other layers in the security system, including expanded use of explosive trace detection equipment and behavioral analysis. “When you go through all the layers of security, they have a multiplying effect,” he said.

The Obama administration announced in February 2009 that it would provide $1 billion for airport screening as part of its $787 billion federal stimulus package.

In May, the administration detailed how that money would be spent — including $25 million for the new scanners. Between May and September, the department asked contractors to provide proposals for building the scanners. Competing models were tested over the summer.

DHS awarded the contract to California-based Rapiscan at the end of September.