New Rule Would Order Airlines to Install Bomb Detection Units

WASHINGTON — The government issued a draft rule Thursday that would require airlines to install bomb detectors capable of spotting plastic explosives in checked baggage at 40 U.S. and foreign airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration did not list the airports at which units are to be required, although it said that the first one is expected to be in service at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York by the end of the month. A second is to be placed at London’s Gatwick Airport.

Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said in April that he would issue such a directive in response to the Dec. 21 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland that killed 270 people. Investigators concluded that the bomb was a plastic explosive hidden in luggage.

Congress has been considering legislation that would have the government pay for the units, which could cost from $750,000 to $1 million each. Several might be needed at larger airports.

The rule requiring the sophisticated bomb detectors is scheduled to go into effect at the end of August, after a period for public comment that ends Aug. 7, FAA spokesman John Leyden said. Installation at the 40 airports, however, could take from two to three years, Leyden said.

The rule calls also for the FAA to decide where additional detectors might be installed, and it invites comment on whether the FAA should expand the requirement later to cover all domestic airports.

The rule does not mandate a specific device, but only one has been approved so far by the FAA: the Thermal Neutron Analysis unit manufactured by Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego.