Tuesday, April 20, 2010

African Aviation Ministers endorse 3D scanners at airports

After a three-day aviation security meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, African Aviation Ministers Tuesday endorsed the use of the controversial 3 dimensional (3D) scanners and ot her technologies at airports across the continent.

In a Joint Declaration at the end of the conference, organised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the ministers also recommended that states, in collaboration ICAO, should establish, approve and implement procedures, mechanisms and cooperative actions, which strengthen their capacities to assess and face ci vil aviation security threats and risks, thereby facilitating legitimate passenger and air cargo flows.

The 3D body scanner is controversial because of its capacity to see through the human anatomy.

The regional ministers meeting in Abuja was one of the five meetings ordered by ICAO in the wake of the failed attempt by a Nigerian citizen, Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to bomb a United States airline r on 25 December 2009.

The first of the conferences was held in January in Madrid, Spain, followed by a second one in February in Mexico and the third in Tokyo, Japan in March. The last one will hold in Dubai on 10 May.

Aviation Ministers from 16 African countries attended the Abuja conference.

They were joined by US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Director-Ge neral of Airport Council International (ACI), Angela Gitttins; Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, African Union (AU), Dr. Elam Ibrahim; Deputy Minister of Transport, Canada, Mark Gregory and the Secretary-General of African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Nick Fadugba.

Source: African Aviation

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