Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Q&A: The explosives

Your questions answered on the explosives that could have been used in the plot.

By Times Staff
Published August 11, 2006

	[Times photo: Ken Helle]
	Tampa International Airport: Lines backed up Thursday at Airside C when security was tightened after the reported terrorist plot to destroy several airliners in flight with liquid explosives was broken up in Britain. Full coverage: Fighting terror in the air
	[AP photo]
	Airline passenger Anton Gerasimov takes a drink of his champagne Thursday before boarding a flight to Russia at San Francisco International Airport. Travelers were asked to dump all liquids.
	NEW RULES Liquids are banned from carry-on luggage and cannot be taken through security checkpoints. That includes drinks, toothpaste, perfume, shampoo, hair gel, suntan lotion and similar items. Drinks purchased in the airport cannot be carried onto flights. Baby formula and medications will be allowed but must be presented for inspection at security checkpoints. All shoes must be removed and placed on an X-ray belt for screening. Passengers traveling to the United Kingdom should contact their airline for information about extra security measures. Laptop computers, mobile phones and iPods were among items banned on British flights.

What are liquid explosives?

A liquid explosive is simply a liquid that has the ability to explode, either when its ingredients are mixed together or by using a separate detonator. Household items, such as hydrogen peroxide, can be used to create liquid explosives.

The most common is nitroglycerin, a key ingredient in dynamite. As little as a few ounces is sufficient to blow a hole in a window or the fuselage of an airplane.

Are these bombs easy to make?

The ingredients are easy to acquire, some of them can be found in your medicine cabinet. But the difficulty is combining them without blowing yourself up. That's not a problem if you are a suicide bomber willing to die in the explosion.

Has anyone ever used liquid explosives on a plane before?

Yes, in 1994 Islamic fundamentalists set off liquid explosives on a Japan-bound Philippine Airlines plane, killing one passenger and injuring 10 others.

Can airport security devices detect these explosives?

Airport security devices are currently unable to detect the composition of bottled liquids, including explosives. "If you had it in your carry-on bag, it'd just look like a bottle of water," said Don Kettl, director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. "Now they're dealing with that problem by saying, 'You're not taking anything on the flight.' "

Airport technology is limited to detecting high-density weapons such as knives and guns, and residue of solid explosives. Liquids, on the other hand, show up "relatively transparent to an X-ray," Kettl said. Because airport security devices can't distinguish between explosives and harmless liquids, nearly all liquids have been banned from carry-on baggage.

"If you have an explosive that looks like a sports drink in a bottle, and if we can't tell the difference between a sports drink and an explosive, at this point the only alternative is to prevent you from bringing it on to begin with," Kettl said.

[Last modified August 11, 2006, 07:10:42]