http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/wo..._MAIN_0811.html

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2299479

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/11/terror.plot/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4780815.stm

So.
There was, according to police here and across the big blue wet thing, a plot to blow up aeroplanes coming from here to the U.S. People were taking explosive liquids (probably nitro glycerine) disguised as fizzy drinks onto the plane into their hand luggage, and apparently planned to detonate them on big passenger planes as they neared their destinations. The police here have arrested 24 people, taking some of them by raiding their houses, and their ages range from 35 to 24. MI5 has apparently had them under surveillance for months, and were slowly closing in.

I consider myself lucky that this wont stop me taking my holiday in Ireland on Sunday, but hundreds of other flights have been delayed or cancelled.

Discuss.

Hmmm... I honestly don't see how that plan would succeed, nowdays that they wipe you and your luggage down with the little pads and you walk through that thing that "sniffs" the air for certain chemicals. If you were in contact with explosives, like a "fizzy drink", they would know.

Insane people do crazy things though, good job on MI5's part.

My thoughts exactly. Who carries explosives for a plan they have been devising for months in their hand luggage. It's just... 'd. (Their brain. Not the explosives.)

I couldn't do that. I'd get thirsty and accidentally drink my nitroglycerin.

It has an e at the end. And it would probably detonate the moment it hit the back of your mouth, as well as poison you. Oh, wait...

I severely doubt they were trying to carry NitroGlycerin on in its prepared form, as one accidental drop and it goes bye bye, and that wouldn't be prevented by letting people store it in the hold. However if they people were trying to carry on Nitric Acid and Propanetriol (Glycerol) and mix it on board, then you would get the effect, and stopping people having access to the materials would prevent the bomb from being made in the first place.

And thats even if it was Nitroglycerine that was the chemical, because there would be other much more suitable, much easier to handle checmicals that could do a similar trick. Remember planes just need a small break in the fusilage and you get explosive decompression.

That 13 hour flight to go on holidays is suddenly sounding so much longer. And worriesome. (Thank the gods nobody targets Australia, right? Right?)

I think you're right about the mixing it on board thing, and I know it was nitro glycerine, because some scientist guy on the news said that that was what made it even more risky (and unexpectedly stupid), because just the tiniest bit of turbulence once they have been mixed could set the whole thing ing

Aaactually, the explosive was Hydrogen peroxide and acetone, I believe. And the bottom half of the bottle was fake, and filled with the stuff dyed the same color as the Gatorade. It was sealed, and then the top was filled with actual Gatorade, so that they could drink from the bottle if they had to. The detonater was a disposable camera's flashbulb.

Also, there are only 92 of those Sniffer things in use all across the US. I know going through 4 different airports this summer, I didn't go through a single one.

Only heard about this on the news this morning, scary stuff, considering how well they could conceal some of it, as Fallen indicated.

Depends on the airport. I was just recently in Italy, none of the European airports I was in had the "chemical sniffers," and neither does my local Airport, or even Logan in Boston.

Newark made me go through the chemical sniffer on my way back from Europe, but by then it's a bit late.

Everyone be afraid...Be very, very AFRAID...

Nah. I'm done with airplanes for a bit!

WHat really makes me mad about this, is I hate losing luggage, and there is a high rate of luggage loss. So I use to only pack carry ons. Now, I have to have everything susscpetable to luggage loss, so I'm going to try to avoid flying till they smarten up. OR maybe jsut fly on small airlines who are less likely to lose luggage.


Also, don't forget that the same day Jordan stopped a terrorist attack on planes going from Jordan to Qatar.

Wow, that works?

See if its listen in the Anarchist cook book or not.


I heard some military expert on the radio who said he could think of 3 or 4 ways of doing this without it being detectable by the old secuirty standards.

With all the security now, why not just bomb the airports themselves, without trying to get on a plane? You still kill a lot of people, and you disrupt every incoming flight in the process.

Same reason I've never quite understood why people trust so much in metal detectors at schools. If I wanted to kill a lot of people, I could just gun down whoever is manning the metal detector and walk through, or do it while buses are loading or something.

Because, in all reality, Terrorists aren't smart.

They actually though 9/11 would scare us into some sort off submission.. yeah, that worked well.

If they had blown up those planes flying from the UK to America, they'd have killed citizens from half a dozen European countries.. which would actually work for us, not against us. It would galvanize the world, which currently doesn't much like the US, into supporting the "war on terror" much more adamantly because it would then be their people being killed.

True. I suppose it's good for the world that most criminals are lacking intelligence, restraint, or a balanced mental state. Smart, calculating individuals are so much harder to catch.

it forms 3,3,6,6,9,9-hexamethyl-1,2,4,5,7,8-hexaoxacyclononane (a trimer of Peroxyacetone) its pretty much one of the most explosive liquids under normal conditions, more susceptible to friction and jolts than even Nitro Glycerine. I can't see why they would need a detonator though.