Rep. urges market research on airline screening devices

Homeland Security officials apparently ignored the advice of top scientists and failed to conduct market research on airline passenger screening technology before moving to advance new methods after the attempted bombing of a commercial jet on Christmas, House Science Innovation Subcommittee Chairman David Wu, D-Ore., said on Wednesday.

"As far as I know, I'm the only person that's asked this question," Wu said, as witnesses from the Homeland Security Department, the National Academies of Sciences and the National Institute of Standards and Technology could not answer if passengers had been questioned on screening preferences.

Wu noted that NAS reports in 1997 and 2007 said public acceptance needed to be taken into account when rolling out passenger-screening technologies.

"No wonder the deployment of body-scanning technologies has proven to be such a public failure," he said. "The relevant agencies did not do their homework and follow up on the Academies' recommendation in a serious way." Wu added that he would want to see polling and market research performed in the near future.

Bradley Buswell, deputy undersecretary for Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, said his office uses panels of experts from within the industry and public interest groups to identify possible passenger acceptance issues.