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Changi Airport may use body scanners

By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent , The Straits Times | Fri, Jan 15 2010

Screening machines would be for travellers on high-risk flights.

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TRAVELLERS at Changi Airport may soon have to walk through screening machines that see hidden explosives and other dangerous items - and their body contours.

The Straits Times understands that the scanner tested in 2008 is to be used on passengers on high-risk flights, such as those to the United States.

The alternative is a pat-down.

When asked, a police spokesman said the decision to deploy these machines had not been made, although the airport was constantly looking into new ways to enhance security.

She added that the police and the Changi Airport Group were also studying alternative detection methods, and stepping up training of airport and security staff so that they are sharper in spotting suspicious behaviour and other tell-tale signs.

Such moves to tighten security cost money, and ultimately part of that cost is passed on to airlines and their customers, who now pay between $5 and $10 in 'security tax' for each flight.

The United States announced plans to install body scanners at all its major airports following a foiled Christmas Day bid to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Nineteen American airports already use at least one such scanner. In Europe, Britain, the Netherlands and Italy are among countries which have announced plans to use scanners.

The use of these machines, which cost US$200,000 (S$277,000) each, has sparked a heated debate over health and privacy.

Some people are concerned about the safety of the radiowave or X-ray technology used to generate images, but experts generally agree that the radiation from these scanners is likely to be low, and insufficient to cause serious harm to those passing through them.

To address privacy concerns, airports using these scanners have arranged it such that the images are reviewed in a separate room, and cannot be downloaded or saved; the images are also devoid of identifying features, which means one cannot match face to body.

When the machine was tested at Changi Airport, the images were viewed only by women officers, who were barred from carrying cameras and other photographic equipment while on duty.

Meanwhile, airline groups are not thrilled about extending the use of body scanners.

The 17-member Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said it took a dim view of treating each of the six million people who get on planes daily as potential terrorists and subjecting them to 'virtual strip searches'.

Its other concern is the cost of this stepped-up security, which already runs into tens of billions of dollars each year.

Retired civil servant Chris Lee, 61, who agrees with the association, said: 'I do not see why all passengers, the vast majority of whom are perfectly harmless, should be subject to such intrusive checks. The lapses are in intelligence gathering and analysis and these should be fixed.'

The recent Northwest incident, for example, was a result of an intelligence lapse. It has since come to light that the father of the Nigerian culprit had warned US intelligence agencies that his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had embraced radical Islam and was a danger.

Abdulmutallab's name was put on a watch list and he did not check in any luggage, yet that did not raise red flags: He passed all security checks and boarded the aircraft.

But many travellers whom The Straits Times spoke to have no serious objections to body scanners.

Business unit director Amir Melber, 46, who travels every other month to the US, said: 'Pat-downs are not only ineffective but are also done in full view of other passengers, which can be embarrassing if you are being singled out in a queue.

'Ultimately, if the implementation of the body scanners results in the elimination of the profiling that now happens, as well as safer travel and peace of mind, then it would be welcome.'

karam@sph.com.sg

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.

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