Heathrow Airport first to utilize full body scanners

BAA’s first of six UK airports to install full body scanners will be the Heathrow International Airport.

BAA, the Ferrovial-owned operator which manages six UK airports, informed that the full body scanners will be installed first at Heathrow and will be used the soonest possible time. However, the airport operator did not specify the time scale and cost of the project, and failed to mention which flights are to be covered, if there is any.

The installation plan followed after the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown released a statement saying that the country is ready and committed to utilize the new scanning technology, and that the UK airports have to improve security measures following the failed terrorist attack on Christmas Day by a Nigerian national suspected as an Al Qaeda member.

The prime minister also urged tighter security routines in all UK airports, including the mandatory hand luggage checks and the use of full body scanners. He however emphasized that scanners do not offer the best solution against any security threat.

Earlier, sceptics question the effectiveness and reliability of the full body scanners in detecting explosives. They also raised privacy issues over the device as it produces the bare image of a scanned passenger, which campaigners assert is similar to a strip search.

In related news, the British and the US embassies in Sana’a stopped their operations for 2 days after receiving security threats from an Al Qaeda faction based in Yemen. The Yemeni group is also suspected to be responsible for the failed US bombing attack.