Flights coming into Australia next week from Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai will be subjected to an additional security check at the gate. The explosive trace detection (ETD) will be conducted randomly on passengers at the gate.
You would probably have seen security officers conducting ETD checks on random passengers at the security screenings across airports in Australia. A probe with a tiny piece of cloth attached to it will be used to swipe randomly around your clothes, bags and shoes. The piece of material will then be inserted into a machine which I believe is an explosive trace detector.
Qantas, Virgin, Eithad, Qatar and Emirates, all of which already have gate screening measures for liquids, aerosols and prohibited items, will be affected by the additional screening initiative. The measures follow recent moves by US and UK to ban electronic devices on flights from the middle east. At this point in time however, Australia has no plans to ban electronic devices on flights coming in.
