3 isle airports Airports in Hilo, Kona and Lihue are among more than 100 across the country that will get additional machines to detect explosives, according to a nationwide list made public yesterday.
to receive more
bomb detectors
Hilo, Kona and Lihue will get
machines to check baggageBy Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com
"It will make our airports more efficient," said acting state airports Administrator Roy Sakata.
FILE PHOTO / MARCH 2002
A security guard signaled to a passenger at a checkpoint at Honolulu Airport in March.
The federal Transportation Security Administration is acquiring the minivan-size machines to meet an end-of-the-year deadline to screen 100 percent of baggage for explosives at the nation's airports, Sakata said. Screening in Hawaii is now done only on randomly selected baggage.
"We have a lot (of the machines) at Honolulu," he added. "We don't have as many as we want. We have more than the average large airport."
Additional CTX (computerized tomography X-ray) machines would supplement those already available at Hilo, Kona and Lihue, he said. The CTX machine, which operates similarly to a CAT scan machine at health-care facilities, is used to detect plastic explosives in luggage.
"There's a big back order for these machines," Sakata said.
Besides the machines, the federal government is also preparing to increase passenger screening.
The Transportation Security Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, was created in response the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Under its acting administrator in Hawaii, Allan Agor, contracts with private agencies for passenger screening were taken out of the hands of airlines and put under federal control, Sakata said. The next step will be to end the contracts and to make passenger screeners federal employees, he said.
Sydney Hayakawa, formerly with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the state Department of Public Safety, has been named as the permanent Hawaii head of the Transportation Security Adminis- tration and is now in Washington in preparation to set up a full-scale office of the agency here, Sakata said.
The federalization of passenger screening will leave the remainder of airport security, such as facilities and airport perimeters, in state hands, he said.
Although airport security will grow, Hawaii's airports are already safe, Sakata said, noting that Honolulu received the fourth-highest ranking in the nation in test attempts to sneak weapons into selected airports.
Federal officials are expected to visit airports this week to draft plans for new checkpoints and installation of CTX machines.
