An Associated Press investigation in early April documented 268 instances in which people hopped over, crawled under, drove cars through or otherwise breached the fences and gates protecting the perimeters of 31 of the busiest US airports from January 2004 through January 2015.

One of those breaches involved a 15-year-old boy who hid in the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet in April 2014 and survived a flight from California to Hawaii. He told police that he had scaled a security fence at Mineta San Jose International, undetected by CCTV equipment.

As recently as October 2014, an inebriated woman drove through a guarded gate at Seattle-Tacoma International, collided with an airport vehicle, and then drove to a terminal gate, near taxiing planes with passengers.

Most major airports around the world today, having used CCTV cameras for decades, now supplement this with thermal imaging and other sensor applications. Near the Texas-Mexico border for example, McAllen-Miller International Airport, attached optical fiber to fences in 2009.

Outside the US, Narita International Airport near Tokyo has its perimeter protected by vibration sensors, in addition to double-fencing, video surveillance and patrols.

Israel's Ben Gurion airport runs a ground radar system between two electronic fences, with hundreds of advanced observation systems and highly trained armed police and soldiers assigned to the perimeter.

FLIR is now appending other sensing techniques to its core thermal imaging equipment in the niche market for border protection, coastal surveillance, vessel traffic monitoring, airport security and large perimeter security applications.

By combining thermal cameras, radars and various other sensors, it can detect and track multiple targets simultaneously from an extended distance.

The Ranger HDC MultiSensor system combines thermal imaging with daylight sensors and optional Laser Range Finder, GPS, Digital Magnetic Compass, and Automatic Video Tracker, which can be fixed to pan/tilt mountings.

The Ranger HRC thermal imaging system offers options such as CCD TV camera, laser rangefinder, digital magnetic compass and gyro-stabilised pan/tilt mechanism. The Ranger R20SS ground-surveillance radar detects personnel and vehicles within a 20km range, with 2Hz refresh rate.

For further information, please visit PASS Thermal.