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Security United States Transportation

American Airlines Is Using a CT Scanner To Screen Luggage At New York's JFK Airport (theverge.com) 125

Posted by BeauHD from the all-in-the-name-of-safety dept.
According to American Airlines, the airline is working with the TSA to install a new bag-scanning machine at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. "The machine uses the same technology as CT scanners, providing a 3D image of bag's contents, and is expected to be operational in late July," reports The Verge. From the report: The new scanner, which will be used at the airport's Terminal 8 security checkpoint, will allow TSA to rotate a bag's image 360 degrees to show its contents. American Airlines says this should provide a more effective way for agents to inspect bags for explosives and other prohibited items. TSA administrator David Pekoske tells CBS News that the new machines could allow for liquids, gels, aerosols, and laptops to be left in bags. The TSA plans to have 15 of the new CT scanners at airports by the end of the year, and are authorized to purchase up to 240 of the machines, which cost $300,000 each, in 2019. The technology has also been tested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and in Boston.
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American Airlines Is Using a CT Scanner To Screen Luggage At New York's JFK Airport More

American Airlines Is Using a CT Scanner To Screen Luggage At New York's JFK Airport

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  • Honestly, this doesn't bother me... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Monday July 23, 2018 @05:26PM (#56996940)
    If they can effectively screen baggage and prove it, it might reduce some of the other security-theater TSA nonsense.

    • Ok, now let us pretend they are keeping the scan data and tying it to your identity...

      They know what you left with and what you returned with, now lets say you bought something out of state and returned home with it (the receipt is also in the scan), would you be ok with them (your state) using that knowledge to tax you the sales tax you did not report for that sale?

      I wonder at what point people will say enough is enough, if at all?

      • Problem is, I'm drowning in data, but what I really need is information from all that data.

        Sure, you could collect it, and store it, and even possibly get a way to retrieve it quick enough to do comparisons, but what can you really tell from it? That they packed their laptop on top last time or are bringing home TWO bottles of water when they left with one? Maybe you could gig them for stealing shampoo from the hotel? Or, GASP, their carry on is LARGER on the way home than when the left and it's loaded u

      • Ticket/ID check is generally at the head of the security line or (rarely) at the boarding gate. The guy/girl looking at the X-ray scanner screen isn't going to know your identity. The images won't be tied to an identity -- too many bags being dropped on the belt by random people to make this efficient.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Which airports? In most of the US airports I've seen, the ticket/ID check desk is at the beginning of the line and the x-ray machines are at the other end. There's no check when you dump your bags on the belt, and the order of people doing so isn't really controlled -- some people slooooowly take laptops and liquids out while other people pass them by.

            I think a few may do it backwards, with ticket/ID check at the boarding gate, but I haven't seen this recently either.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pots ( 5047349 )

      it might reduce some of the other security-theater TSA nonsense

      This is a contradiction. If you believe that effective screening could reduce the ineffective stuff, then you don't believe that it's theater. The point of security theater is not to be effective.

      • What I'm saying is that, if they were actually effective, they'd spend less time PRETENDING to be effective.
    • This thing bothers me a lot.

      It reduces what you can own and travel in privacy with. Several generations ago, some of my ancestors were stripped of their silver at the border leaving.... Sounds like more of the same coming, and other common govt hijinks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mishehu ( 712452 )

      If they can effectively screen baggage and prove it, it might reduce some of the other security-theater TSA nonsense.

      If only I had points to mod you "Funny"...

  • "the new machines could allow for liquids, gels, aerosols, and laptops to be left in bags."

    Just as the guns, knives and hand-grenades they never find when they get tested.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday July 23, 2018 @06:04PM (#56997182)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jbengt ( 874751 )
      No, $60,000,000 is the budget for buying new scanners.
      The requested 2019 budget for the TSA is $7.7 billion
      I just hope these are the same type of scanners we designed for last year, I would hate to have to redesign the mechanical/electrical support for new ones for a third time. By the way, that upgrade of the back-of-the house scanners (not the ones you see at the check-in or carry-on lines) for a single airline at a single airport had greater than a $50,000,000 budget. At $300,000 a piece, the cost
  • They should offer you free CT scans when you pass the security checkpoint. Connect it with AI to catch random things and offer medical results after you land at your destination.

  • They are already using CT scans at PHX airport. It is much more convenient, I didn't even have to take my laptops out of my bag.

    • In the early 90's I worked for Invision Technologies, who built the CTX-5000, an explosive detection device using a CT scanner. It was the first such device certified by the FAA for airport security. In looking at a video of the machine from Analogic, the CT images produced by their machine basically look like what the CTX-5000 produced back in the 90's. The CTX-5000 produced color images in 3D. Nothing new here that I can see.

  • I'll believe that the TSA agents are taking airplane security seriously when they start putting the TSA agents on the planes. I know that the crew have their best interests in mind on that plane because they have to ride in the plane. Maybe that's how it can work, the TSA agents become the crew. They take a shift working security, then they take a shift as attendants on the plane. Of course they can't check themselves through security so someone else has to check them.

    Here's a better idea. Have the air

    • I like the idea of putting TSA screeners on the plane. In fact, make the ones who screen the passengers for a flight take the flight with them. Like having to jump the parachute you pack.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrDoh! ( 71235 )
      >Here's a better idea. Have the airlines provide their own security. That's how it used to work. They paid the least amount possible. Then the all the airlines operating out of an airport would get together so that an airport would have 1 security company (lowest bid!) to keep the cost as low as possible. Here's an interesting issue though... If it's a private company (the airline), doing the security, you don't have 4th amendment protection anyway, it's just other citizens, not the government, doing
  • Now it would be great if American Airlines could also install some better customer service for their customers too...

    • Probably won't happen. The entire airline industry is about:

      "How can we make this as miserable experience as we possibly can while we price gouge you for it."

  • Is this really a cost effective way to save lives? How many deaths a year are caused in the US by terrorists on aircraft? How many of those would actually be stopped by CAT scanners?

    That is separate from the serious privacy issues that other posters have raised.

  • Go through the security at Schiphol Airport and you're asked to leave everything in your bag in the right 6 lanes. Has been like that since the start of the year and they aren't 3D CT scanning anything, they just have a better X-ray machine with finer contrast adjustment.

    • They very likely are CT scanners as the bbc news article about Heathrow installing some says that Schiphol already tested them.
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44925635

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        They very likely are CT scanners as the bbc news article about Heathrow installing some says that Schiphol already tested them.
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-... [bbc.co.uk]

        Also Amsterdam Schipol is a very well run airport and the Dutch are an exceptionally well mannered people with a solid work ethic. I've been though hundreds of airports and the only departing Customs or Immigration officer who ever asked me if I enjoyed my stay was at Amsterdam.

        • Did you try a bit too much in the lounge while you were in Amsterdam? ;-)

          Solid work ethic is right, I wouldn't call the Dutch necessarily well mannered, and I sure as hell wouldn't call Schipol well run. Have you ever been ushered through the employee entrance of an airport because they utterly failed to manage the security line during a holiday? They also managed to then tell customers to arrive at the airport 3 hours early but didn't tell the airlines, so there were customers who go to the airport super e

      • Sorry you are absolutely right. I confused them with MRI scanners and their giant magnets.

        This is what I put my bag through last week: http://airportfocusinternation... [airportfoc...tional.com]

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