Guns onboard, but pickles barred

Chutney powder is also called gun powder down South. But the hi-tech baggage checking system at Hyderabad’s new international airport seems to have taken the sobriquet literally. The Austrian-made inline baggage system (IBS) identifies pickles as explosives but fails to detect weapons. Last Thursday, a Delhi-bound flight had to make an emergency landing soon after takeoff because of smoke in the cargo hold. A probe revealed that the smoke had been produced by a leaking chemical, which, when later run through the IBS in a dummy check, was passed undetected. More tests revealed the system okayed certain explosives and guns, but barred pickles and condiments.