• IATA launches safety information exchange

    Four aviation organizations — the International Air Transport Association, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the Commission of the European Union — sign an agreement to create an international aviation safety data exchange; the four organizations will now start work on a way to standardize safety audit information and ensure compliance with local privacy laws and policies

  • TSA general aviation manager says new LASP due this fall

    Two years ago the TSA proposed strict security measures for general aviation’s larger planes; this Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) generated more than 9,000 negative comments and was ridiculed as being written by people with no knowledge of general and corporate aviation; TSA now says it seeks “a less adversarial relationship with the industry,” that a proposal for more limited security measures will be out in the fall for public comments

  • Children must go through full body scanners at U.K. airports

    U.K. transport minister says that to exclude children from going through full body scanners risked undermining the security measures at U.K. airports; the government’s code of practice on the scanners said airport security staff had all been vetted, including a check of criminal and security service records

  • Nigeria installs body scanners at airport

    Lagos international airport installs three full-body scanners at a cost of $300,000 each. Nigeria’s three other international airports — in the capital Abuja, the oil town of Port Harcourt, and the largest northern city, Kano — are also scheduled to be equipped with the scanners

  • Smartphones, PDAs may be used to avoid long security lines at airports

    TSA is looking at installing devices in airports that home in and detect personal electronic equipment; the goal is to track how long people are stuck in security lines; information about wait times could then be posted on Web sites and in airports across the United States; civil libertarians worry

  • Bluetooth signals monitor airport security-line waiting times

    Purdue University researchers use Bluetooth signals from cell phones and other wireless devices to track how long it takes travelers to get through security lines at the Indianapolis International Airport; the data can be used to help airports make more accurate staffing decisions and aid security officials comparing wait times at airports across the country

  • TSA to propose more limited security measures for general aviation

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has opted for relaxing proposed security measure for general aviation (GA); the new plan is likely to exempt all general aviation aircraft smaller than mid-size jets as defined by maximum takeoff weight or fuel capacity; pilots of such mid-size and larger GA aircraft would be required to go through a vetting process and earn “trusted pilot” credentials

  • One frequent flyer finds himself on TSA's selectee list

    Ray Davis from Mansfield, Michigan — he describes himself as “just a Mansfield nobody” — was placed on TSA’s selectee list for no reason he can fathom; the list contains some 18,000 people deemed suspect by TSA, but not suspect enough to stay permanently grounded; the selectees are subjected to third and fourth once-overs of passports, hand inspection of luggage, and the like

  • TSA: Full-body scanner safe for prostheses

    Full-body scanners are safe for passenger with artificial body parts — from replaced hips to augmented breasts; TSA says the scaners uses low-energy X-rays that do not penetrate the skin: prosthetic devices, artificial limbs, and surgically replaced body parts will not show up on the body scan image

  • Trucking industry says it is prepared for terrorism threat

    Trucking industry says that contrary to a scenario in a recent report on the subject, in which a gasoline tanker is hijacked and disappears, a rigorous daily delivery schedule means an out-of-route tanker would be reported very quickly, with or without tracking gear; industry calls for a single, uniform background checking approach

  • SF fiery crash highlights cities' vulnerability to tankers used as weapons

    More than 800,000 trucks carry shipments of hazardous materials every day across the United States; background checks of those hauling hazardous materials are designed to prevent fugitives, the mentally ill, and those convicted of terrorism, espionage, or murder from obtaining a HAZMAT hauling license; one security expert: “It’s very difficult now to purchase explosives … but it’s not that hard to steal a truck full of gasoline, and you can do quite a bit of damage”

  • Israel's top 10 airport security technologies, II

    No-one understands security as the Israelis do, and this is why some of the world’s best new innovative airport security technologies are being developed in Israel; since the foiled Christmas Day attempt on a Detroit-bound plane, airport authorities around the world are in a race to find novel solutions to fight terror, and the strategies and technical tactics Israel has adopted feature high on their lists

  • GAO raises questions about effectiveness of full-body scanners

    The Obama administration is aggressively pushing for deployment of full-body scanners: 450 of the scanners will be installed at U.S. airports by the end of 2010; 950 installed by the end of 2011; and 1,800 by the end of 2014; the cost of installing and maintaining the scanners: about $3 billion over eight years; concerns have been expressed about privacy (some of the technologies used - for example, active millimeter-wave radiation — generate anatomically accurate images of passengers’ bodies) and health (some technologies, for example, backscatter X-ray, inundate passengers with large amounts or radiation (although many physicians say the amount of radiation is not health-threatening); now questions are being raised about the effectiveness of these scanners; GAO: “While [TSA] officials said [the scanners] performed as well as physical pat downs in operational tests, it remains unclear whether the AIT [advanced imaging technology] would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident”

  • Israel's top 10 airport security technologies, I

    No-one understands security as the Israelis do, and this is why some of the world’s best new innovative airport security technologies are being developed in Israel; since the foiled Christmas Day attempt on a Detroit-bound plane, airport authorities around the world are in a race to find novel solutions to fight terror, and the strategies and technical tactics Israel has adopted feature high on their lists

  • Passenger at Gatwick Airport told to turn T-shirt inside out

    Lloyd Berks,38, his wife, and two kids — age six and four — were traveling for a ski vacation in Austria; a Gatwick Airport security officer asked Berks to turn his designer T-shirt — on which the words “freedom or die” were printed — inside out because the T-shirt could be considered “a bit threatening”