Radios may be banned

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 11

Radios may be banned

NZPA-Reuter Montreal Passengers’ radios may have to be banned from airliners to prevent their use for hiding bombs like the one that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, the British Transport Secretary, Paul Channon, said yesterday.

He warned air travellers that to be safe from terrorists they might have to accept the inconvenience of allowing more of their baggage to be checked and having more

of their electrical equipment scanned or even banned — including the lap-top computers which are increasingly popular with business travellers. Mr Channon spoke shortly after investigators announced in Scotland that the explosive that ripped apart Flight 103 last December over Lockerbie, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground, was hidden in a radio cassette player. “There are a number of

devices like this which can be taken on board but cannot be opened,” Mr Channon told reporters in Montreal, where the International Civil Aviation Organisation was meeting to discuss increased security at airports. 1.C.A.0. called a meeting of international experts for March 6-10 in a bid to develop better means of detecting explosives in baggage, cargo and on passengers.