New technology may have prevented airport stun gun debacle
Company officials say upgraded X-ray machines that show luggage from multiple angles might have made it easier to spot the device.
The Transportation Security Administration had been upgrading carry-on baggage X-ray machines nationwide with multiangle viewers for more precise inspection, even before a smartphone-size stun gun apparently bypassed security at Boston's Logan International Airport, according to a manufacturer that supplies both the older and newer technology.
The traditional imaging systems offer TSA personnel only a single, usually bottom-up, view of baggage contents, which may have made it difficult for staff to distinguish the weapon from permissible electronics, Smiths Detection officials said.
It is still unclear whether the forbidden device, which was found aboard a JetBlue plane at Newark Liberty International Airport last week, had gone through any screening system. Also unknown is what kind of machines were operating in the departure area.
The newer X-ray technology, which allows screeners to see items from various angles, likely would have enabled staff to spot components that are unique to stun guns, Smiths officials said.
The electronic weapon did not look like a handgun. TSA officials declined to say whether X-ray equipment could have detected the particular gadget recovered.
Johannes B. Ullrich, who used to study X-ray optics and now serves as chief research officer at SANS Technology Institute, an information security organization, said he wouldn't be able to make out a stun gun on an X-ray image. "Actually, a charger would probably look pretty similar in an X-ray," he said.
"From what I understand, this was not your typical Taser-type gun and it was shaped more like a block than a gun," Smiths Vice President Mark Laustra said. The newer X-ray technology provides a top view and a side view of a bag, rather than just a single perspective, which "would make it a lot easier to find this type of device if someone had this in their carry-on bag," he said.
Federal air marshals do not carry stun guns, TSA officials said. Whole-body scanners would have flagged such a device on a passenger, according to Laustra.
At about 11 p.m. on Friday, TSA was alerted to the discovery of the prohibited item by the cleaning crew at Newark airport, agency spokesman Kawika Riley said. The FBI Boston office began investigating the incident after law enforcement authorities confiscated the object. It was reportedly stumbled upon in a seat-back pocket.
"TSA employs multiple layers of security to minimize risk, deter future attacks and protect the traveling public," Riley said. "Those layers include checkpoint screening technology, federal air marshals, fortified cockpit doors and armed pilots, among others both seen and unseen."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last September said that TSA had deployed roughly 940 of the newer carry-on viewers at multiple U.S. airports. Smiths-brand systems are in use at Albuquerque, N.M.; Baltimore-Washington; and Denver airports, according to company officials. At the time, Napolitano announced DHS, TSA's parent agency, would spend $86.3 million, largely through economic stimulus funding, to purchase more units. Smiths, Rapiscan and L-3 Communications were awarded stimulus money to provide the machines.
On Wednesday, TSA officials said they had added more than 30 units since last fall and that the technology now is at 100 airports. The agency plans this summer to begin installing roughly 700 machines that should cover every remaining airport by 2012.