Backscatter X-ray technology deployed at Phoenix airport

Feb 27, 2007 4:00 PM

Backscatter X-ray technology -- which photographs passengers under their clothing -- has been deployed at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The technology can find plastic bombs strapped to a terrorist's chest or other hidden non-metal weapons.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began testing the advanced technology last week, USA Today reports.

"It's a new day in aviation security," said TSA technology chief Michael Golden.

Advanced scanners became a higher priority in August after authorities foiled an alleged plot by terrorists in Britain to bomb U.S.-bound airplanes with liquid explosives. Similar machines will be tested this year at Los Angeles International Airport and New York's Kennedy International Airport and could be installed in airports across the United States.

The test, slated to last several months, will determine how well the machine finds weapons, how quickly it scans passengers and how people feel about a device the American Civil Liberties Union has branded a "virtual strip search."

The TSA ordered the machines modified to produce cartoon-like sketches of passengers instead of the graphic photos backscatter ordinarily generates.

Backscatter X-ray -- made by American Science and Engineering and Rapiscan Systems -- is used only on passengers who trip a checkpoint alarm or those selected by a computerized profiling system. The passengers can choose a traditional pat-down or opt to be screened by the backscatter X-ray.

The TSA says about 70 percent of passengers who required extra screening at the test checkpoint in Phoenix this weekend chose the backscatter X-ray method.

In Phoenix, the machine operates in Terminal 4 at a checkpoint used by about 8,000 US Airways or international passengers. Those getting extra screening are handed a backscatter brochure that emphasizes its low radiation, equivalent to the exposure from two minutes of flying.

Joe Reiss, vice president of marketing for American Science and Engineering, which makes the machine in Phoenix, predicted most passengers will opt for backscatter because, "People feel that employing this technology can be helpful for security."

The $100,000 machine, on loan for the test, is as big as an industrial-size refrigerator. It photographs the front and back of a passenger as he or she stands inches away with arms raised. A screener, who is the same gender as the passenger being screened, studies the photos on a screen in a room 50 feet away. She radios to a screener stationed at the machine and describes objects on the passenger that need to be hand-checked.

The process takes about a minute -- roughly as long as a pat-down -- but longer if any suspicious item is found. Passenger images are deleted immediately, the TSA says.

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