The body-scanners day in Malpensa

The machine costs around 150 thousand euros, and it will be tested for a month on the flights to United States and Israel. Travellers will queue up for the body scanner, the staff will ask who doesn’t be controlled, and if someone prefers to avoid it he can be controlled by a member of staff instead. The members of staff that checks the timing will  ensure that the flow of passengers is fast: the company that assembles the machines, based in Mandello del Lario (Lecco), of american design, has guaranteed that the control lasts 6 seconds.

 

If, at the end of the testing, the interdepartmental committee for the security, in agreement with the  European Union, decides that they can be used, Enac will buy 4 body scanners for Malpensa. Enac has allocated 2 million Euros for Rome (where the testing has begun at the beginning of March), Milan and Venice.

 

Roberto Maroni declared that today there are 3 pieces of good news: ”the first is that today is my birthday, the second is that we have arrested the men of the Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, and the third is that we are behind Inter by 1 point”, joked the Home Secretary making an allusion at his passion for the colours red and black (Inter Milan football team). Maroni also spoke about security and the fight against crime: “we decided quickly and afterwards we acted quickly despite the slowness of the European Union bureaucracy that is still evaluating if and when to use the body scanners. They are devices that don’t present any risks to health and are useful for increasing the level of security, and for this reason I hope that also the other European countries will quickly use body scanners. We are in the forefront but we must secure all the European airport system because in this way there aren’t gates where the terrorists can enter. We are sealing all of these gates.” Maroni concluded: “if as I believe, the experiment is successful, the body scanners will be adopted in all Italian airports and not only for the flights from and to the United States but for all of them”. Letizia Moratti, Mayor of Milan, has assured that “the investments in Malpensa are continuing. Malpensa has a value for Milan and for the North” she said. “Malpensa has confronted a difficult situation after the dehubbing of Alitalia, but it has come out of the crisis: we have   9% more travellers and 40% more goods, so we are gaining ground. This demonstrates that here there is a market”.

 

To examine the new instruments has been invited Pizzetti the guarantor of the privacy, while in Fiumicino already the Health Secretary Fazio has guaranteed that the equipment only emits microwaves that don’t cause harm. The viewer can avoid being invasive by presenting only stylised pictures of the body. Tomorrow, Tuesday 16^th March, the testing will begin: it remains to be seen how much time is needed for this control, but the summit believes that people will understand, because everybody strongly feels the need for security.