HAMBURG, Germany - Body scanners being trialed at a German airport ahead of a planned nationwide roll-out were so inaccurate that the whole scheme has been scrapped, a government official announced Wednesday.
The so-called backscatter scanners had an error rate of 54 percent during their year-long trial at Hamburg Airport, The Local reported.
The controversial screening devices are similar to the "naked scanners" already in the US at several major airports.
But the German models proved unusable, returning false results triggered by folds in clothing and even by perspiration.
More than 800,000 passengers took part in the trial, which was prompted in part by the so-called "underwear bomber" who tried to set off a bomb on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in 2009.
Germany has abandoned plans to use scanners at its airports and will not reconsider until the technology is more reliable and meets "high security standards," interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said Wednesday.
The announcement was welcomed by civil libertarians and the German transport industry, which complained that the scanners caused delays at airports.
Read more: thelocal.de
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