Dutch to use full body scans for U.S. flights
Dutch to use full body scans for U.S. flights
The Netherlands said Wednesday it will begin using full body scanners on all passengers taking flights to the United States, following the attempted terrorist attack on a U.S.-bound flight on Christmas Day.
The scanners will be operational in about three weeks at Schiphol, where security checks last week failed to spot explosives being taken aboard a U.S.-bound flight, Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst told a news conference at The Hague.
“We’ve escaped a very serious attack with serious consequences, but unfortunately in this world there are individuals who do not shy away from attacks on innocent people,” she said.
Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, 23, is accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane using explosives that had been concealed in his underwear. He is charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft.
The militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the December 25 plot.
Dutch authorities have already said they were confident in the security measures that were carried out when AbdulMutallab transferred to the Detroit flight from an earlier flight from Nigeria.
The measures they had in place were metal detectors and X-ray machines, however — and ter Horst admitted they could not have picked up the explosive material that AbdulMutallab was allegedly carrying.
“The introduction of these body scanners would certainly have helped in detecting that he was carrying something on his body,” she said.
“We know that metal detection does not help to detect non-metal explosives, and these millimeter-wave scanners can do this, which would mean that this would be an improvement.”
Ter Horst brushed aside concerns over the millimeter-wave scanners’ invasive ability to produce “naked” images of passengers, saying they did not contravene European laws on privacy.
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