Full-body scanning machines soon will be arriving at the Akron-Canton Airport.
Akron-Canton is one of 29 airports the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced would be getting the recently purchased machines, called millimeter wave advanced imaging technology (AIT) machines.
Several Ohio airports — Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo — already have the machines in place, and Youngstown was unveiling its machines Tuesday, said Jim Fotenos, spokesman for the TSA.
The machines cost $120,000 to $180,000 each. Akron-Canton will be getting two machines, which Fotenos said look like a large phone booth.
There are two types of body-scanning machines in use at the nation’s airports. The AIT machines use electromagnetic, or radio, waves. Another machine, called a backscatter, uses low amounts of X-ray, said Fotenos. There are 500 units at 78 airports nationwide and about half are of each kind, he said.
Columbus and Cincinnati airports use the backscatter machines, Fotenos said.
Fotenos said airports of all sizes have the scanning machines.
“Checkpoint configuration is considered and airport readiness,” he said.
It does not have to do with which airports might need more safety precautions, he said.
“It’s fair to say we take security at every airport across the country seriously,” Fotenos said.
At the Akron-Canton Airport, the new machines come while the airport is already in the midst of its expansion project for an enlarged security area. Airports pay the costs to enlarge a security area, and spokeswoman Kristie Van Auken said the screening area enhancement was already in the airport’s long-term plans.
Van Auken said the larger screening area will have four metal detectors and two body scanners in use. The new scanners probably will be installed in about six weeks, when construction for that area will accommodate it. The full construction of the area won’t be done until after the new year, she said.
“We’re glad we can offer this even higher level of screening capabilities to thwart risk to passengers traveling through CAK,” Van Auken said.
Fotenos said the TSA uses the body scanners as a primary imaging device, like it uses the metal detectors.
“We’ll send you to a lane, and if you go through the advanced [machine], you are not also going through a metal detector,” he said.
The airport screening expansion began about two months ago with the relocation of the food court and gift shop area within the airport toward the south side of the main concourse. That will make room for the security area to be nearly doubled. It will have room for six lanes, but will start with four lanes at a cost of $1.3 million, airport officials said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.
