Low-Level Radiation Detected On Incoming DFW Flight
FORT WORTH (KRLD) - A Tokyo to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport flight sets off radiation detectors after landing in North Texas.
DFW Airport officials confirm radiation was detected in the cargo area of an American Airlines flight from Japan Wednesday morning.
Sarah McDaniel with DFW Airport told NewsRadio 1080 KRLD that it was an extremely low level and posed no danger to passengers on the flight. She says it was also not the type of radiation that would have come from a nuclear power plant.
Airport officials say the 9:15 a.m. Wednesday flight from Narita found traces similar to that of an X-ray.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are scanning all incoming flights from Japan for radiation.
Officials also say there is no need for concern about radiation on mail coming into Texas. According to Amanda McMurry, a U.S. Postal Inspector in Fort Worth, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency routinely monitors mail for any levels of radiation.
"At this point no abnormal or unusual or unacceptable levels of radiation have been detected," she said. "But it would be up to them [Customs] and their procedures should some sort of hazard be determined."
There was some concern when the Agency detected low-levels of radiation on mail in New York and San Francisco that came in from Japan. But McMurry says international mail is first screened in coastal areas, before it ever gets to North Texas. "Thus far we haven't seen anything with a hazardous or dangerous level of radiation so at this pint there's nothing for postal customers to worry about."
