Aviation and Airport

Religious leaders discuss body scanners with DHS
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders met with DHS officials to discuss the privacy aspects of whole-body scanning; Muslim religious organizations, the Pope, and Orthodox Jewish authorities declared body scanners to be in violation of their respective religions’ modesty strictures, especially for women, and urged their followers to opt for pat-downs instead
- Read more
Smiths Detection's mid-sized X-ray system added to TSA's Air Cargo Screening Qualified List
By August 2010, all cargo carried on passenger planes will have to be screened; Smiths Detection’s latest addition to its list of cargo screening machines — a pallet-sized scanner — is the company’s sixth technology approved to help shippers meet TSA August 2010 100 percent air cargo screening deadline
- Read more

TSA: Alleged child molester did not train or use new full-body scanners at Logan
A Boston man charged with multiple child sex crimes was a certified luggage and passengers screener at Logan Airport; TSA says the man was already missing from work for several days when full-body scanners were deployed at Logan on 1 March, and thus had no access to the machines; the man’s arrest adds fuel to the opposition to body scanners
- Read more
Shoes will have to be taken off at U.S. air ports for a while yet
DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said that technology currently available does not allow screeners adequately to examine what is in someone’s shoes while the person is wearing them
- Read more

Passive millimeter-wave technology promoted as solving privacy, health concerns
There are three leading technologies in whole-body scanning: backscatter X-ray, active millimeter wave, and passive millimeter wave; the first raises privacy issue; the second raises health concerns; Florida-based Brijot, a champion of passive millimeter wave, says its technology addresses both sets of concerns
- Read more
More U.S. airports deploy body scanners; new scanners -- and 40 existing ones -- used for primary screening
The U.S Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said whole-body scanners will be deployed to nine more U.S. airports; the machines are among 150 units bought with money from the federal stimulus package; they join 40 machines already in use at 19 U.S. airports; both the new and existing machines will be used for primary screening
- Read more

Airport security by the numbers
In its 2011 budget request, DHS has asked for $214.7 million to buy and install 500 whole-body scanners; 75 percent of high-risk airports and 60 percent of second-tier airports will have body scanners deployed by the end of 2011
- Read more
Canada to use DHS's Secure Flight rules
Starting in December, passengers on Canadian airlines flying to, from, or even over the United States without ever landing there, will only be allowed to board the aircraft once the U.S. DHS has determined they are not terrorists
- Read more

Fired O'Hare Airport security chief sues city over firing
James Maurer, former security chief at O”Hare, seeks more than $2 million in damages from the city for his dismissal last September; he says the reason for his dismissal were his repeated pleas to put correction of serious security lapses ahead of moving forward on costly plans to modernize the airport
- Read more
FAA investigating reports that young child was allowed to direct flights into JFK
The FAA is looking into reports of a child directing air traffic at New York’s JFK airport; a child’s voice is heard giving instructions to at least three pilots
- Read more

U.K. shipper complies with "known shipper" requirements by installing Avigilon surveillance system
Avigilon helps Airberg conform with government-regulated security requirements, saving more than £700,000 each year; additional benefits include protecting the shipper’s facility from theft and vandalism and minimizing the loss and damage of goods
- Read more
Airline passengers in Canada to pay more to fund increased air port security
The Canadian government says there is a need to invest much more money to bolster air travel security in Canada — but it does not want to raise taxes; the solution: an increase of the Air Travelers Security Charge charged to air travelers
- Read more

U.K. begins trials of monitoring suspicious behavior Heathrow
U.K. government begins trial of behavioral monitoring at Heathrow Airport; monitors will look not only for suspicious objects, but for suspicious behavior; the behavioral assessment will be used in conjunction with intelligence information and new technology, like the full body scanners, to improve the safety
- Read more
Debate intensifies over private planes security measures
There are 220,000 private planes operated in the United States, flying out of 19,000 airports, most of them small, community airports; in 2008 the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) proposed tougher security regulation of 15,000 of these planes — mostly private jets — which fly out of 4,700 airports; facing stiff resistance from owners and operators of these planes, TSA two weeks ago announced it would relax the proposed security requirements; last week’s suicide attack on a Texas office building causes TSA to reconsider the whole issue
- Read more
Nigeria ordering Rapiscan backscatter imaging systems for the country's international airports
The government of Nigeria is deploying Rapiscan’s Secure 1000 Single Pose backscatter whole-body scanners at the country’s four international airports; the systems will be used to screen passengers traveling to the United States as well other countries
- Read more

More headlines