Arnold Palmer Regional Airport gets no-contact scanners

LATROBE, Pa. — 

Western Pennsylvania's Arnold Palmer Regional Airport now features a scanner that conducts full-body searches of passengers without physical contact.

More than 750 of the scanners, which use millimeter-wave technology, are utilized at 150 airports across the country. The Latrobe airport was provided the machine by the federal Transportation Safety Administration.

Executive Director Gabe Monzo tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the machine will increase the airport's efficiency by making it quicker to process passengers and their baggage.

Monzo says the scanner gives the airport flexibility if it is ever expanded.

Westmoreland County Airport Authority officials say board members have been discussing a 20-year plan that includes a $7 million expansion of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to add two more gates to the terminal.