Lufthansa steps up checks after thwarted bombing

Dec 28, 2009, 17:08 GMT

Berlin - Lufthansa advised passengers in Germany on Monday to arrive earlier for US-bound flights as pre-flight security was stepped up, three days after a bomber nearly blew up a Northwest Airlines jet over Detroit.

A Lufthansa spokesman said passengers were being asked to allow more time to check in and to bring less carry-on luggage than in the past, saying, 'Behind the scenes there have been one or two changes.' But he gave no details.

At Frankfurt Airport, Germany's main international hub, there were no evident delays in the check-in or take-off of US-bound flights.

At the same time, German officials said they would take a fresh look at body-scanning devices which can 'see' foreign objects under clothing. In 2008, the EU delayed plans to set up the devices at main airports because of an outcry at passengers being depicted naked.

Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy caucus leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in Berlin, said, 'I assume we'll be having the first tests in 2010 of scanners that can detect liquid or solid explosives without invading people's intimate space.'

The mass-circulation newspaper Bild, which interviewed him, released the remark in advance of publication on Tuesday.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, allegedly attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight with 278 passengers as the plane came in to land at Detroit on December 25. US reports said he had 80 grams of explosive sewn into a fold of his underwear.