By Recto Mercene
The much-trumpeted body scanners, costing P12 million each and able to detect narcotics and explosives, have remained unused six months after they were installed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) terminals.
The Naia bought 14 units of the EQO millimeter wave body scanners and installed them in August 2015, in four departure terminals to help prevent the entry of terrorists carrying explosives.
The scanners use advanced technology to detect objects on a passenger’s body by means of low-frequency radiation that is safe even for pregnant women and those with body implants, according to the airport’s Media Affairs Division.
The EQO Portal scanner can also detect ceramics, liquid, metal, narcotics and explosives. This device is ideal for passengers who refuse to be touched because of religious beliefs.
This upgraded version of body scanners is considered necessary as terrorists were found to be also upgrading their skills in their attempts to bring all sorts of explosives into an airplane undetected.
Examples of the sophistication of terrorists is the attempted attack on a Northwest Airlines flight in 2009, when bomb technicians and explosives experts found explosives in the shoes of one passenger, Richard Reid.
Reid, a British citizen and Islam convert, pleaded guilty to all eight counts of charges against him, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted homicide and placing an explosive device on an aircraft.
The flight originated from Paris, France, and was bound to Miami, Florida. Passengers thwarted his plan, and the plane landed safely in Boston, Massachusetts.
In another celebrated case, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 25, pleaded guilty to attempting to blow up a commercial plane as a would-be suicide mission for al-Qaeda.
He was badly burned when a bomb sewn into his underwear failed to fully detonate, prosecutors said.
Almost 300 people were on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
“This was an act of terrorism that cannot be quibbled with,” Judge Edmunds said, as she imposed the maximum sentence on Abdulmutallab, the son of a Nigerian banker and a former engineering student at University College London.
In December 2015, an Air France flight from Mauritius diverted and made an emergency landing at Kenya’s port city of Mombasa after a suspicious device was found in the lavatory. The CEO of Air France confirmed the device that forced diversion of Flight 463 to Kenya was a “false alarm” despite an earlier confirmation from the Kenyan Airports Authorities that a bomb had been found.
Frederic Gagey, the head of the airline, said the device was made of cardboard, paper and a household timer. He said: “This object did not contain explosives.”
The Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) said they delivered the scanners to the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) last August.
“We provided the equipment. Miaa paid for it. Then as we know, passenger screening at the airport is handled by OTS,” Spokesman David de Castro says.
OTS, then, welcomed the new body scanners saying “they will greatly help in detecting explosives materials even in small amounts.”
Last November, however, the device was found to be inactive and the OTS said no socket are available for the scanners to be fully operational.
Miaa Senior Assistant General Manager Vicente Guerzon confronted several OTS members asking why the scanners remained unused. He said they are closely coordinating to solve the problem.
On Wednesday an OTS screening officer said they tried to operate one of the three body scanners at the Naia Terminal 1, but “it bogged down after screening10 passengers and needed to be calibrated.”
The BusinessMirror tried to send a short message to Dr. Miguel Oraa, OTS spokesman, to get an answer, but he gave no response to the message.
According to the supplier, their machines are all brand new and have been recently calibrated when installed at the Naia.
The Smith Detection of Singapore, supplier of the scanners, has trained several OTS personnel, airport police and other technical staff on how to operate the scanners but OTS is the agency duly authorized to operate scanners.
There is a lingering suspicion that the OTS is not interested in operating the new scanning devices.
The “tanim bala” scheme was blamed on the OTS members in the past as a means to shakedown unwary passengers who are much in a hurry to argue, fearing to be left behind by their airplane.