Aviation security: FAAN installs scanners at airports

Murtala Muhammed Domestic Airport (MMA2), Lagos

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria on Tuesday said it had installed seven brand new X-ray scanning machines at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, and others as parts of measures to improve safety and security at the airports.

The development came barely one month after a teenage stowaway was arrested at Lagos airport after hiding in the Tyre compartment of an Arik Air plane, which took off in Benin City.

FAAN said the decision to install the modern machines was in line with the ongoing transformation in the aviation sector.

A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said, “The authority has already installed seven brand new X-ray scanning machines at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos; five at the cargo basement of the international terminal, one at the Hajj and Cargo Terminal and another at the airport’s domestic terminal one. This is in addition to existing security equipment at the airport.”

 According to Dati, all the other airports in the county are also benefiting from the installation of new scanning equipment, which include cargo screening machines, carry-on screening machines, hand-held metal detectors, 3-D body scanners, hold baggage screening machines and walk-through metal detectors.

 The FAAN spokesman said the scanners would help to ensure increased security surveillance of outgoing baggage destined for aircraft bulk hold.

This, he said, was in addition to the CCTV cameras installed within the airports, which will ensure that illegal or unapproved luggage are not loaded onto aircraft.

“It will also help check pilfering of luggage. The provision of this new security equipment was also necessitated by the expansion and remodelling of the airports, the structural designs of which were altered,” Dati added.

Culled from Punch