BIA garners new explosive detection equipment

BANGOR – Two new explosive detection machines have just arrived at Bangor International Airport as part of the Transportation Security Administration’s effort to expand its baggage screening capabilities.

BIA is among 21 airports nationwide scheduled this year to receive the machines, which examine checked baggage using CT, or computed tomography, scanning technology, TSA regional spokeswoman Ann Davis said Wednesday. TSA screeners in Bangor are being trained on the new machines, which should be operational within two weeks, she said.

“They will increase the effectiveness of the screening operation as a whole,” Davis said.

Manufactured by Bedford, Mass.-based Reveal Imaging Technologies Inc., the machines will augment BIA’s existing explosive detection equipment, Davis said. The airport currently uses a system in which a swab is swept over baggage and then fed into a small device that analyzes it for explosives, Davis said.

With the new equipment, called CT-80s, baggage will be fed into the machine. Along with a multidimensional image of the bag, the machine also will measure its density and atomic number, which can correspond to explosive material.

The CT-80s are set up at the airport’s ticket counters and look like space-age igloos. The machines, about the size of a golf cart, are smaller and easier to install than explosive detection equipment now used at larger metropolitan airports, Davis said. They also require less manpower to operate, she said.

“They’re not as labor intensive,” Davis said.

The machines cost $350,000 apiece, about a third of the price tag of existing equipment at larger airports. One drawback is that the CT-80s have less capacity, though at smaller airports like BIA it shouldn’t affect screening times, Davis said.

Air travelers in Bangor won’t notice much of a change in the screening process, she said.

TSA field tested eight Reveal CT-80s in 2005 at airports in Mississippi, New Jersey and New York. Following the success of the pilot program, TSA purchased 73 machines for about $25 million with plans to deploy them at small- and medium-sized airports this year.