Plastic Explosive Screening Device Installed by FAA

A 10-ton machine capable of detecting plastic explosives hidden in luggage arrived Tuesday at New York’s Kennedy International Airport, representing the newest generation in anti-terrorism technology.

The $1.1-million thermal neutron analysis (TNA) device is billed as the first machine available to automatically detect the type of plastic explosives believed to have caused the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, last year, killing 270 people.

First of Six

But Rosemary Wolfe of Alexandria, Va., a board member of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, who lost her 20-year-old stepdaughter, Miriam, in the Lockerbie crash, said: “This is just not enough. It would take many, many more of these devices for any of its effectiveness to be used. One at one airport is just not going to do much.”

The machine delivered Tuesday is the first of six purchased by the FAA for installation by the end of the year at Kennedy, London’s Gatwick Airport and airports in Frankfurt, Germany; Detroit; Miami, and San Francisco. The device at Kennedy should be operating by Sept. 1, said Raymond A. Salazar, the Federal Aviation Administration’s director of civil aircraft security.