Trials of full-body scanners at Delhi airport from May

New Delhi: India will start using full-body scanners to screen passengers at the international airport here on a trial basis from May and decide by the end of the Commonwealth Games in October who will get the multi-million dollar contract to supply such equipment.
Currently security checks at airports include pat-down searches, door frame metal detectors and hand-held device scans. But these can mainly detect metals and not non-metallic objects that can be kept hidden in one's underwear like the one carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian passenger, on a North-Western airline from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas.
The plastic explosives Abdulmutallab concealed in his underwear failed to detonate properly, resulting only in flames and popping sounds.
As part of the process to strengthen security, all ground staff and airline officials will be issued biometric identification cards from March with dedicated points to gain entry into Delhi airport, said a top official in the civil aviation ministry.
"This is a secure and efficient means of identification," the official said, explaining that the biometric card will have an embedded micro-chip incorporating some tamper-proof features of an individual that will be virtually impossible to forge.
03/02/10 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Feb 2010