UK airports may lift liquid ban by ’09

London, Sept. 10: The British government is reportedly planning to lift the ban on liquids being carried by passengers in their handbags by early 2009, as over the past two years (since the ban was imposed in August 2006), the country had been incurring heavy costs to the tune of "tens of millions" of pounds in paying for the nearly 3000 extra staff posted at different airports for frisking passengers for liquids in hand bags.

The British administration is holding discussions with security companies to install security gadgets at the airports to detect the liquids carried by passengers. Four UK airports, including Heathrow, have bought scanners that will detect dangerous liquids and more are on order. It is believed the government will not lift the restrictions until all major airports have the new technology. According to the Independent, modern technology already deployed at the Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5 can automatically detect the presence of liquids in carry-on bags. Now, the government scientists are running tests to see if the scanners could be adapted to pick out those that are harmful.

"The technology is there, which will allow these scanners not only to test for liquids but also to determine if those liquids are dangerous or not. At the moment, that technology is being tested by the security services and when they are happy that it works, the ban will be lifted," the paper quoted a security source as saying.

According to the paper, the aviation industry is keen to see a change in the restrictions imposed in 2006 after intelligence experts believed they had foiled a plot to blow up airliners with liquid bombs. Only on Tuesday, Virgin Atlantic said the "time may now be right" for a change. —ANI