Amsterdam's Schiphol airport has made full body scanners mandatory for US-bound passengers in a decision that will put pressure on other airports to adopt similar security measures in the wake of the foiled US terror attack.
The announcement followed US president Barack Obama's admission that “a mix of human and systemic failures” led to a “potentially catastrophic breach of security” in the incident.
The Dutch interior minister, Guusje ter Horst, said the scanners would be used for people flying to the US within three weeks, after a Nigerian man boarded a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit at Schiphol with 80 grammes of explosive in his undergarments. Schiphol is one of a number of airports in Europe and the US to have carried out trials of full body scanners, which can detect anything hidden beneath clothing.