Mobile 'Threat Containment Units' debut in local airports

So this is kinda cool: Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports are the first airports in the world to have mobile threat containment units — basically, bomb-proof trash cans — that can be used to get suspicious carry-on baggage safely away from passengers without shutting down the airport terminal. The units, which in all fairness bear little resemblance to actual trash cans, are manufactured by the British company Aigis Blast Protection. The circular containers weigh around 700 pounds each and are 37 inches high and 35 inches in diameter; they can easily be wheeled away from security checkpoints if a piece of baggage is deemed potentially dangerous. "When a piece of hand baggage is determined to be suspect in any way, you would take it off the screening belt and just deposit it into this unit and then you close the unit up and you take it away," Aigis' Eamonn Cooney told KUHF. "The point is to keep the airport open and to just take away out of the terminals where the bomb squad would deal with it instead of the option today, which is you don't have this and it's happening in the terminal and you're closed."

The so-called "Threat Containment Units" can easily be transported by people, robots or vehicles, and they're designed to contain a blast even if a bomb detonates near the sides or bottoms of the units — which apparently was a problem with some other similar devices (you can see a video demonstration at Aigis' website — but alas, no explosions in the video). The units cost about $25,000 each, but the Houston Airport System's Mark Mancuso said they're a good investment: "Houston has decided that it wanted to lead the nation in this effort in protecting the lives of passengers as well as employees in the travel industry," he said. "We believe strongly that it is our role and responsibility to provide these kinds of technologies in order to protect not only the passenger and employees but also to ensure business continuity."

We're all for anything that could avoid hold-ups in the security lines at the airport. Now if someone would just invent a device that would make people take all their jewelry off and have their boarding passes ready before they hit the metal detectors ...