Amex :
Peter Gurney, who's the bomb disposal guy who dealt with that bomb, wrote a book about his experiences and there's a fair bit about it.
IIRC, the explosive was in liquid form, held in a green glass wine bottle. It's detonated by a reasonable shock, so an electric calculator converted to either a time delay fuse or something barometric ( or a combination ) was in the bottom of the bag. Calculator goes bang, bottle goes bang, EL AL jumbo goes to bottom of Mediterranean.
The security guard was also suspicious of the weight of the bag.
At the court case, where the "boyfriend" was convicted of endangering an aircraft or terrorism or whatever it was, he was sentenced to forty five years imprisonment. Apparently he misheard it as "four to five", and the rapid wiping of the smug grin on his face when someone corrected him was something delightful to behold.
Anyone wanting to read about people who really have balls of steel, "Braver Men Run Away" is well worth the money.