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JEAN HELLERThe detector, being tested at five airports, flags anyone suspicious by using air to dislodge trace particles from skin, hair and clothes.
TAMPA - Women hold their skirts down. Men's suitcoats ripple. Children tend to giggle. And little dogs' ears rise and flap around.
Although the reactions are sometimes amusing, the latest explosive detection system at Tampa International Airport is serious business.
The GE Ion Tracker, a walk-through portal for people, began a 30-day test this week in Airside A. Passengers seemed either beguiled or indifferent.
"It's cool," 6-year-old Haven Wichelns of Boston declared after passing through ahead of his father and younger brother. "It's like a little fan blowing, or flies buzzing around."
The machine uses puffs of air to dislodge traces of explosive from human skin, hair and clothes.
The body's natural heat - what General Electric calls the "human convection plume" - carries the trace particles upward, where they are collected by a suction fan for analysis.
Explosives experts say an individual cannot handle or work with explosives without getting traces on skin and clothes.
If the scan finds nothing suspicious, the red lights in the interior of the portal turn green, and two glass doors open to release the passenger to the next phase of security - the metal detecting portal.
The difference between the two portals is that the metal detectors, in use for years, can sense a knife or a gun but not gunpowder or any other explosive.
How small a trace can the Ion Tracker detect?
"We don't really want that figure in print, but it's a nanoparticle," said David Rutter, GE vice president for global support. "If you emptied a packet of sugar into an Olympic-sized swimming pool, mixed it up and then withdrew a cup of water, this machine could detect the trace, if the sugar were an explosive."
The machine also can detect narcotics and is used for that purpose in some prisons. But that function is turned off in airports because of search-and-seizure issues and because the TSA's mission does not involve narcotics interdiction.
Passengers asked to go through the portal already have been designated by airlines for special secondary security. These travelers either fit some aspect of a security profile or are among those picked for random checks.
"It is a significant improvement to our security posture as to explosives," said Dario Compain, the TSA's federal security director at Tampa International Airport. "It only takes a few seconds, and it will allow passengers to avoid some of the secondary searches they've been put through."
The puffs of air emitted by small jets are brief and not powerful enough to lift a skirt or muss a hairdo. But they might come as a surprise to small pets.
Small dogs or cats flying in the cabin with owners must be removed from carriers and taken through the portal in the arms of their owners.
TIA is one of five airports that are testing the Tracker. The others are in Providence, R.I., Rochester, N.Y., San Diego and Gulfport, Miss.
"They were spread out through the United States so they could be tested in different environments," Compain said. "Here, we specialize in humidity."
If the TSA decides to buy the machines, and Congress chooses to fund the appropriation, they will cost about $150,000 each.
"Whether all airsides will have them or all lanes in each airside or even every airport in the country depends on the results of the tests and is subject to congressional authorization," Compain said. "This is not going to happen real quick. We're coming to the end of a fiscal year, and the tests have to be completed and analyzed."
During the 30-day test period, TIA will record passenger counts, the number of alarms, the type of alarms, and how often the machine requires maintenance.
GE has been developing the Tracker for several years. It is used in prisons as a narcotics detector, and in nuclear power plants around the country. GE won't say where for security reasons.
An individual selected for explosives detection will be instructed to step onto a rubber mat with two footprints on it. When the Tracker's sensors detect a body, a voice will tell the person to enter.
The passenger stands inside a black square painted on the floor and is surrounded by red lights. Two glass doors with "Stop" signs block the exit. Then come the puffs of air, from the shoes up to the shoulders. Recorded instructions tell the person to stand still and wait for the green light.
Seconds pass until the lights change and the doors open.
People who set off an alarm are taken aside for questioning about profession, hobbies and anything else that might have put them into contact with explosives.
While TIA and the nation's other 430 commercial airports have had explosive detection systems for baggage for several years, the Ion Tracker is a first for people.
"The No. 1 priority is security for the traveling public," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. "This is one more opportunity to ensure that the people who get on an airplane are the people who should get on an airplane."