U.S. airports to get explosive 'sniffers'

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is moving ahead with plans to buy 200 liquid explosive detectors for the country's biggest airports this summer.

TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said the devices won't end restrictions on what liquids and gels passengers can carry onboard aircraft, USA Today reported Wednesday.

The agency began testing the machines last month at airports in Miami; Newark, N.J.; Detroit; Los Angeles; and Las Vegas airports and monthlong test was to begin Wednesday at Boston's Logan International Airport, the agency said.

The $20,000 PaxPoint machines are made by ICx Technologies and are held close to containers of any kind as the molecular structure of the vapors is analyzed to spot explosives, the report said.

The search for the technology began last August when British security officials foiled a plot in London in which suicide bombers carried common household plotted to carry on common household chemicals and then concoct a bomb during flights to the United States.