Turkey’s largest airport has unveiled enhanced security for flights heading to the United States in an effort to convince U.S. authorities to lift an in-cabin ban on laptops, Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Friday, June 30.
The new computer tomography or CT scanner is currently in use at one gate at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, but Turkey hopes that this could be a long term solution to lift the electronics ban on direct flights to the United States and U.K.
Turkish passenger, Bursa Yildirim said she supported the new direction.
“I think these measures will make it easier. They [authorities] are right. This is how the security measures should be taken. We are losing a little bit of time, but I think this is a positive step,” she said.
Another gentleman in line for security told Reuters, “I don’t know what to say about it but this is OK for me.”
In March, the U.S. and British security agencies announced a ban on in-cabin electronics bigger than a cell phone on flights coming out of several Middle Eastern and North African airports.
U.S. officials have said that the restriction has no end date, and that the recent measures are based on “evaluated intelligence” of potential terrorist threats.
The 10 airports currently affected by the ban are:
1. Mohammed V International in Casablanca, Morocco
2. Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey
3. Cairo International Airport in Egypt
4. Queen Alia International in Amman, Jordan
5. King Abdulaziz International in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
6. King Khalid International in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
7. Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya, Kuwait
8. Hamad International in Doha, Qatar
9. Abu Dhabi International in the United Arab Emirates
10. Dubai International in the United Arab Emirates
One recent terrorist attack involving a laptop bomb that got through security happened in February 2016 at Mogadishu Airport in Somalia. The laptop bomb went off about 20 minutes into the flight, injuring several people and killing one person who was suspected to be the bomber. The flight was headed toward Djibouti.
