A police officers patrols inside the main terminal of Frankfurt’s airport, November 18, 2010.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration could soon announce new airport security screening measures for airline pilots, who have complained about full-body scans and invasive pat downs, a top U.S. official said on Friday.
Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole acknowledged in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that scans and pat downs intended to find explosives and other weapons would offer little protection against any pilot determined to bring down an aircraft. 🙂
“We’ve had a number of very good discussions with pilots and hope to be announcing something very soon in terms of a good way forward for the pilots for that very reason, using a risk-based intelligence driven process,” he said.
Pilots’ unions, which have raised health concerns about scans and objected to rigorous pat downs, say their members already have gone through security background checks, making further screening duplicative. U.S. officials contend that radiation from the scans pose no health risk.
Pistole gave no indication that screening rules for passengers are about to change, despite calls for alternative measures including Israeli-style one-on-one interviews with travellers.
WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 19, 2010 9:40am EST
Source: Reuters