Latest update: 31/12/2009 

- aviation - Netherlands - terrorism


Amsterdam to begin full-body scans for US-bound passengers

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Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will begin using full-body scanners within three weeks on people travelling to the United States, Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst (pictured) said on Wednesday.

By News Wires (text)
 

REUTERS - Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will begin using full-body scanners within three weeks to scan people travelling to the United States after consultations with U.S. authorities, the Dutch interior minister said on Wednesday.

The minister said ordinary procedures were followed properly in the Christmas Day handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"We will make these machines, about 15 in total, available for flights to the United States within three weeks time," Guusje ter Horst told a news conference in The Hague.

Ter Horst said normal metal detectors could not detect explosives, and the use of the full-body scanners would have helped prevent Abdulmuttalab from taking explosives onto the aircraft.

She also warned there was no 100 percent guarantee that the new detectors would have enabled airport security to catch him.

Full-body scanners, unlike the standard archway metal detectors currently used in airports around the world, use radio waves to generate a picture of the body that can see anomalies through clothing.

The investigation is continuing into whether Abdulmutallab had help in Amsterdam, the interior ministry said in a report on the investigation it released on Wednesday.

It found no evidence he had been to Amsterdam before the flight to Detroit, as some had speculated.

Date created : 30/12/2009 
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invasion of privacy

by Anonyme (not verified) - 22/03/2010 - 21:36

I think that the airport full body scanners are a complete invasion of privacy. I would rather just walk through the metal detectors and have them wand me. Who knows what the airport employees are doing with the picture of the people once they print them off. Theres no proof that they throw them all away. I would hate for some pervert to be able to look at me naked at any given time. Get rid of them and respect the airline users rights.

The 60 body-scanners that

by Anonyme - 05/01/2010 - 18:41

The 60 body-scanners that schiphol airport just bought, are made by the company L3
There are only three company's that make good body-scanners, and L3 is NOT one of them....

and the body-scanner would NOT have helped prevent Abdulmuttalab from taking explosives onto the aircraft, because the density of the used chemicals is simply too low to be picked-up by the scanner, especially the L3..

the mistake they are making with security, over and over again, is that it's not about checking the luggage and or body, the only good security is done by looking passengers in the eyes,watching their behavior asking them questions,not at just one place at an airport, but in a dynamic way 24-7 all around the airport by both uniformed and plainclothes security officers.
All this and more is done at one of the safest airports in the world ,airport Ben Gurion.
It's also the airport that deals with the highest number of attacks, and still it is among the safest in the world. And the israeli don't buy body-scanners because, as they say "it's only symbol policy"

stop terorism

by Anonyme - 30/12/2009 - 23:28

that good to work with full body scan to avoid terorism in the world.

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