Seven weeks after imposing a ban on nearly all liquids in airline travelers’ carry-on bags in response to terrorism fears, US transportation officials today will begin letting passengers carry on small amounts of personal-care products, as well as drinks bought in secured zones of airports.

Starting today, travelers will be allowed to bring 3-ounce containers of health and beauty products such as toothpaste, shampoo, and lotions — but only enough to fit in a single quart-size, clear bag. Coffee and other beverages, as well as toiletries that are bought at stores between security checkpoints and airline gates, will also be permitted to be carried on .

EU security and aviation experts met on Wednesday to consider recommending stricter measures for airport security, with particular focus on hand-luggage and the threat posed by liquid explosives.

The expert meeting, which follows discussions with airline and airport officials last week, was prompted by a recent alleged plot to bomb US-bound planes from Britain in mid-flight.

British authorities announced last month that they had foiled an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners using liquid explosives smuggled aboard in drink bottles or other containers.

A US Airways jet had a landing gear fire after arriving at Miami International Airport, officials said. No one was hurt, fire officials said.

The Boeing 737 had 94 passengers and six crew members on board, airport spokesman Marc Henderson said. The airline said 109 people were on board. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

Airline spokesman Morgan Durrant said two of the plane’s tires blew out after landing and that a small fire ignited on one of them. Television crews showed the flames were extinguished on the plane, which was surrounded by white foam.

The escape slides were deployed from the plane’s exits, and the passengers and crew were evacuated, officials said.

The plane was made in 1989, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

“PROUD” bosses at Manchester Airport are to throw a staff party and hand out £75,000 in gift vouchers to celebrate the way the terror alert was handled earlier this month.

Around 750 security and customer service staff will each be given a £100 gift voucher to spend at airport shops to reward their “professionalism and dedication”.

And they will be invited to a planned ‘thank you’ bash along with their families at the end of September.

Passengers faced check-in delays on August 10 after the government announced stringent new restrictions on hand luggage to tackle an alleged terror plot targeting flights to the USA.

But travellers at Manchester Airport were not as badly affected as those at Heathrow and Gatwick.

A woman was taken into custody after driving onto the runway of an airport here Tuesday afternoon, police said.Local police are questioning the woman, whose name was not immediately disclosed, on suspicion of trespassing. The incident forced the airport administration office to close the runway for some 30 minutes, delaying a flight from Nagoya.

At about 11:45 a.m., a car sneaked onto the grounds of Ohibiro Airport and drove back and forth across the runway before coming to a halt at one end, investigators said. Airport workers apprehended the woman driving the car and handed her over to police officers.

The car sneaked into the airport through a cargo entrance that was left open and made its way onto the runway from Japan Airlines’ cargo storage facility, airport officials said.

The 15,000 people who work at Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport near Montreal are really feeling the strain under the tight new security policies. Transport Canada now stipulates passengers and people who work at the Quebec airport may not take liquids, gels, or aerosols past security checkpoints.

This means that anyone who works past a security checkpoint has to settle for coffee or water from the water fountains for their lunch, something that does not make many workers very happy.

Transport Canada spokesperson Vanessa Vermette states that the rules are clear. No liquids past security checkpoints are allowed.

Transport Canada imposed a partial ban on liquids August 10 in response to a transatlantic airplane bomb plot foiled by British authorities that day.

A bomb alert in an airport terminal in West Virginia, USA turned out to be a false alarm as subsequent tests on suspect liquids did not show the presence of explosives. Earlier the airport terminal in Huntington was evacuated after two bottles of liquid found in the carry-bag of a woman of Pakistani origin tested positive for explosives and bomb sniffing dogs reacted positively to them, officials said.

The woman, who has not yet been identified, was questioned by FBI but was not arrested. The suspect’s bottles would be moved to a remote area by a robot where attempts would be made to detonate them and experts would conduct chemical tests to find out the nature of the contents, officials said. Screeners at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington found four items containing liquid out of which two tested positive, officials said. A canine team also got a positive hit for explosives, they added.

The flight in which the woman was to go was allowed to take off but about 100 passengers and employees were evacuated as police conducted the investigations. Reports said one screener noticed a bottle in the carry-on bag of the woman who was preparing to board the flight to Charlotte in North Carolina after the regular security check. The machine which detects explosives gave positive results in the case of two samples. The woman had a one-way ticket to Detroit vita Charlotte, an official said. He said the 28-year-old woman was originally from Pakistan but had moved to Huntington from Jackson, Michigan. Her identification papers showed she was born in 1978.

The US administration has banned carrying liquids into flights ever since the London police foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic flights coming into the United States using liquid explosives.

Souce: http://www.business-standard.com/

As airport security tightens up after botched attempts to bring liquid explosives onto British planes, a new technology is being utliized to detour anyone from trying to sneak anything onto planes. This new scan and virtual see right through your clothes and find anything you may be hiding on your person.

It does this so well infact that the scan will reveal a persons naked body on the screen for airpot security.

At the moment British Airports are using the new scanners in private rooms, one for men, and one for women, with same sex airport staff operating the equipment on a voluteer basis.

Reports say many people are taking the scan over an old fashion pat down. Meanwhile others are call the new machine a major invasion of privacy.
See the Full Virtual Strip Search Story

The US Department of Homeland Security is now requiring all passenger data to be sent to US authorities before any flights are allowed to leave Britain inbound for the United States. In the wake of last week’s events and arrests Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was quote in the New York Times as saying he

hopes the plot serves as a “wake-up call” convincing airline executives and European officals that the changes should become permanent.

Until yesterday passenger data was provided 15 minutes after a British flight took off for the United Sates, this allowed the flights to be turned around if any suspected terrorists or criminals were on board, but this could not provent mid-air attacks.