re: #42 Thanos

nytimes.com

An Airport Screening Program Is Killed

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 21, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is scrapping a post-Sept. 11, 2001, airport screening program because the machines did not operate as intended and cost too much to maintain.

The so-called puffer machines were deployed to airports in 2004 to screen randomly selected passengers for bombs after they cleared the standard metal detectors. The machines take 17 seconds to check a passenger and can analyze particles as small as one-billionth of a gram.

They also break down when exposed to dirt or humidity, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Thursday. Since 2005, maintaining the machines has cost the government more than $6 million.