Better
airport security detection devices could have prevented the death
of an airline passenger mistaken for a terrorist bomber in the US,
an international aviation
security expert says.
US citizen Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, was shot and killed by an air marshal after he claimed to have a bomb in his backpack before bolting from an airliner about to take off from Miami.
A witness said the man's wife had tried to explain he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.
No explosives were found in Mr Alpizar's bag nor on his body.
Norman Shanks, a former airport security manager for Heathrow Airport, said too much was being asked of air marshals, who had committed an "understandable overreaction" when faced with an agitated man claiming to have a bomb in his backpack.
Shanks said if technology had been in place at the airport to screen for bombs in carry-on luggage, the air marshals would have reacted differently.
"They wouldn't think the bag contains a bomb and they had to prevent the person getting access, they would know it was unlikely there was a bomb in the bag," he told AAP.
"Had the systems been in place to detect explosives, the sky marshal who pulled the trigger who have had the though in mind `do I need to shoot to kill, or can I just disable?'.
"I don't think you can be critical of sky marshals, the system let them down."
Shanks said airport X-ray detectors were designed to combat the threat of traditional hijack weapons, such as guns and knives, but did not find bombs.
He said passengers and their belongings should be screened for bombs before they entered aircraft.
"It places the air marshals in a position that perhaps we are asking a little too much of them," he said.
"They are the last resort."
Shanks is in Australia in his role as a director of QRSciences, a Perth-based company that has developed an airport device to detect explosives in bags.
The
federal government officially launched the technology, which is
being trialled the United States, Italy and Singapore, in Canberra
earlier this week.
