SubscribeThree new X-ray machines to check luggage at airport screening system in Columbia will replace manual security checks
Three new baggage X-ray machines at Columbia Metropolitan Airport will replace a labor-intensive security screening process next month.
The new system won't speed up check-in for travelers, but should make air travel safer. "Right now, I would not give Columbia the highest grade (on security) because a lot of it is done by hand," said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the U.S. House aviation subcommittee.
The X-ray machines - which cost $500,000 each and are common at larger airports - will automate much of the airport's baggage screening, said Mica, who visited the airport Tuesday with U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.
Officials said the automation would not lead to layoffs of security workers at the airport.
Columbia will be the only airport in the state with the latest Reveal Imaging Technology machines, which are designed to detect explosives. After being ticketed, passengers will take their bags to the machines and leave them to be scanned and checked instead of leaving them with ticket agents at the counter, said Gerald Chapman, federal security director for airports in Columbia, Florence and Greenville.
A new $22 million control tower - meant to help create a safer, more efficient and more lucrative airport - is also in the works, but federal money has not been approved.
The new tower would be built across a runway from its current location near private jet hangars, Wilson said. The existing 42-year-old tower could be demolished and replaced with businesses such as a distribution center or a maintenance facility.
Mica and Wilson also supported preliminary plans to extend one of the airport's two runways to 11,000 from 8,600 feet, meaning bigger jets could take off and land there.
The $150 million project would extend the runway over a lowered portion of Platt Springs Road, said Mike Flack, the airport's executive director.
Wed, Oct. 25, 2006