WASHINGTON — A device that could “frisk” people, in effect, without making any physical contact with them to spot bombs that may be concealed underneath their clothes, will be tested for the nation’s transportation hubs.
If successful, the device would be used to secure mass transit systems against the threat posed by people wearing suicide vests or carrying explosive devices. Some of the deadliest terror attacks in recent years have been on transit systems, including the 2004 Madrid train bombing that killed 191 and the one in 2005 in London that killed 52.
The TSA has ordered a dozen machines after a successful pilot this spring and summer on the Staten Island Ferry and at Washington’s Union Station. A TSA spokeswoman declined to say where they would be deployed. The devices measure nonionizing electromagnetic waves that are reflected off the body in predictable patterns. They do not project any images of the body itself.
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