1st in Bangladesh: Full-body scanner to step up security check at Dhaka airport

The Civil Aviation Authorities of Bangladesh (Caab) have for the first time placed four full-body x-ray scanners at the pre-boarding security checkpoints at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Security officials will be able to detect any object on or inside a passenger's body, Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, director of the airport, told The Daily Star.

The Civil Aviation Authorities of Bangladesh (Caab) procured scanners from Japan under a project of Japan International Cooperation Agency, he added.

However, the scanners will not be used until officials from Japan arrive in Dhaka and "train our people to operate these machines. But this might take five to six months because of the coronavirus restrictions," Touhid said

The equipment currently used can only detect metallic objects. But the new scanners can detect everything, including the ones inside a person's body, using X-ray.

The new devices will be an addition to the existing metal detectors and archways, said officials at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).

The new scanners will be used for checking five to 10 percent of the passengers, especially those who seem suspicious, because X-ray is not good for the human body, the HSIA director said.

"We will ask the suspicious people to go through the machine," Touhid said.

"When we find something suspicious or unwanted in manual search or when an alarm rings, we will ask the person to go through the full-body X-ray scanner to locate and identify the object."

The full-body x-ray scanner machine works like any other X-ray machine. A person will stand inside with their arms up at the shoulder level. The X-ray will identify everything in their body and clothes in a moment.

These machines are used at different airports in Asia and many developed countries.

The new scanners will boost Caab's ability to ensure safety of the people using the airport.