Agency researching aid for tired guards

Press, 2 July 1986, Page 11

Agency researching aid for tired guards

; NZPA-Reuter Washington Three American com- ; panies are developing exotic surveillance technolo- ! gies that would help bleary-eyed airport ; guards spot concealed bombs and weapons. Some of the new antiterror snooping devices might be ready by next year, and the Federal Aviation Administration is spending; about SUSS million ($9.25 million) a year on the private research effort. “The F.A.A. strategy is to keep a step ahead of the terrorist,” sdld the agency’s chief, Donald Engen. “For every action he takes, we want to have the means to block it.” Tshai Gozani, a scientist with the research firm, Science Applications International, said, “We cannot solve all the probi lems simultaneously. But through this technology we can plug one hole in the dike, or even two holes, and make it much more difficult for terrorists to succeed.” The main motivation for the new research is to find defences against the plastic bombs and guns that have been smuggled aboard planes with apparent ease, but the new devices could also solve problems created by security guards’ getting tired and bored staring at X-ray screens. “We’ve been looking for a long time for ways to take human frailty out of the loop,” said an F.A.A. spokesman. : Under F.A.A. research grants of about SUS 4 million ($7.44 million) apiece, spread owr two 'years, Science Applica-

tions, of La Jolla, California, and the Pittsburghbased Westinghouse Electric Corporation are working separately on a new type of bomb-detector using a technique known as “thermal neutron activation.” The basis of T.N.A., experts say, is that materials exposed to radiation react by emitting radiation of their own. Since each type of matter — Including explosives — emits a characteristic pattern of radiation, these waves will Identify the composition of a concealed object just as a fingerprint indentlfles an individual. T.N.A. technology would be confined to screening luggage and parcels rather than passengers because it relied on radioactive emissions potentially harmful to humans. Westinghouse and Science Applications officials said T.N.A. had already been shown to work in airport tests and that a working model could be active in a year. Had such a device been at airports earlier this year, the officials said, it might have detected the plastic explosive hidden in the baggage of a woman about to board an El Al airliner at London’s Heathrow Airport on April 18. Plastic cannot be detected by the usual X-ray or metal detection devices used at airports. This particular bomb had passed through Heathrow’s security system and was found only because El Al conducts' routine handsearches of all carry-on luggage by its owiMfecurity agents.

Another promising new technology, nicknamed the "sniffer,” would search out bombs in luggage or on a person’s body by detecting traces of gaseous vapours explosives give out. The device, being developed by Thermedics Incorporated, of Woburn, Massachusetts, under an F.A.A. grant of about SUSI million ($1.85 million), has been shown in tests to be capable of finding concealed plastic explosives and dynamite by "sniffing” the air as samples go by, company officials say. The officials declined to be more specific about how the device would work or what it looked like. A prototype may be in place by early 1987, they said. Experts say the "sniffer" might have been able to detect the plastic explosives apparently smuggled aboard Trans World Airlines flight 840 from Rome to Cairo on April 2. The bomb blew a hole in the plane over Greece, killing four Americans. F.A.A. officials said they also were looking for ways to detect new firearms that were made of plastic Instead of metal, although no research contracts have yet been given out. The agency became interested after the Aus-trian-made Glock 17, a 9mm automatic pistol made almost entirely of plastic, appeared on the world market. F.A.A. officials say a well-trained airport security guard can detect a concealed Glock 17 with

an X-ray screening device because it still has some metal parts. But they acknowledge that such a weapon may become more of a problem. “There are no 100 per cent plastic guns now, and it’s questionable whether there ever will be, but — just in case — the F.A.A. earlier this year asked industry for ideas of how to detect them,” said the agency’s Among the most promising technologies was an infra-red scanner that would work something like a metal detector, displaying a concealed plastic pistol as “a cold spot on a nice warm body.” Security experts like the fact that the new snoop devices replace the human senses with electronic circuitry. Besides the human fatigue or distraction factor, they say, even an alert guard could be fooled by, say, a bomb in the shape of a hairbrush, when a machine presumably would not. Officials engaged in the research acknowledge that the new technologies will make airline security more costly but say the expense will be worth it because of the saving of lives. "You are talking about systems that are more expensive than metal-de-tectors and X-rays, but I think it will be affordable by airports and the cost will come down if many of the devices are ordered,” said Dr Gozani, of Science Applications. “I think the price will be right for the risk, and I thjgk people will be very happy to pay the price.”