The breakdown of x-ray baggage inspection systems in the Security Hold Area (SHA) of the Tiruchi international airport on the New Year’s day posed great hardship to overseas passengers eventually leading to delayed departure of certain foreign airlines.
The incident took place during peak time in the morning hours when Sri Lankan Airlines, Air Asia, Tiger Airways, and Malindo Air arrive from different overseas destinations arrive and depart at quick intervals.
The malfunctioning of the baggage scanners apparently led to congestion keeping the officials and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel guarding the SHA on their toes. The SHA is guarded by the CISF personnel.
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The two scanners which were seven-years-old are exclusively meant to scan the hand luggage of the passengers before they board the aircraft. Every individual is frisked at the SHA as part of the pre-embarkation security check. The technical snag forced the CISF personnel to manually check the hand luggage of every passenger accommodated in the SHA, which was modified a few months ago.
The manual checks which had to be mandatorily carried out due to the malfunctioning of the scanners led to time delay posing immense hardship to passengers who checked in early.