"Airport Security's Secret Weapon"

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Airport Security's Secret Weapon
Explosive Detection Systems
By Rob Hayes
KABC-TV Ch 7 (ABC), Los Angeles (CA)


BURBANK, - Airports are known for loud planes, heavy luggage and eternally
long lines.

"You have to be positive," said one passenger. 

Positive that all those lines seem to cause the most anxiety. And the
ever-increasing queues of travelers have been running out of room thanks to
arrival of the EDS machines -- Explosive Detection Systems. 

But it's getting harder these days to find the baggage-scanning equipment at
Burbank's Bob Hope Airport. For most of the airlines there, it's old school.
No schlepping your bags down to the scanner; they just get tossed onto the
belt behind the ticket counter. 

Those conveyor belts lead deep into the bowels of the Burbank Airport,
underneath the terminal. That is where you're going to find the EDS machine.
There are four of them. They're about the size of a mini-van, and they cost
about a million dollars apiece. 

This is the first time news cameras have ever been allowed down here. The
Transportation Security Administration is unveiling how bags are swallowed
up by the machines and scanned with three-dimensional X-rays. 

Transportation Security Administration Spokesman Nico Melendez: "On Sept 11,
2001, less than 5% of all bags were screened for explosives. Today 100% of
all checked bags are screened for explosives." 

It's an amazingly complex process. Each machine can scan up to 500 bags per
hour. 

When a computer using CAT-scan technology hits a suspicious item. a gate
drops down and sends the bag up a different conveyor belt on its way to a
TSA agent. 

"If we see something or the machine picks up something, some kind of
explosive residue, or an explosive, it will alarm and it will be re-routed
so the TSA can take a physical screening of the bag, meaning we're going to
open your bag and go through your belongings," said Melendez. 

The Inline EDS at Burbank was a $30-million investment. John Wayne Airport
in Orange County has a similar system, but no such luck at LAX. The cost for
an inline scanning system there expected to top $300 million. But TSA
officials say it is inevitable.

Click or paste the link to view the video:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5312558

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