Viable pipe bomb found by UK security

[blind pew]

Ryanair passenger found with pipe bomb in luggage was allowed to fly again days later - Independent.ie

What beggars belief is that he was allowed to fly as he alleged that someone had planted it in his baggage.

[captplaystation]

Not much point in security doing their job if some numpty further down the line fails to attribute any significance to it

[sharksandwich]

Next time I am caught with a packet of cocaine in my luggage I'll say someone planted it and hopefully I'll be allowed on my way.

[wiggy]

A bit early AM here so sorry if I am being thick but I'm not quite completely clear to me from the article where he was caught "outbound"..Reading between the lines - Manchester?

Found it, FWIW there is a slightly different account of what happened here:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....orism-12598681

It isn't not clear from the MEN report (written the day before the Irish account) whether in reality he was allowed to travel or not...maybe all will become clear and we will find out more on/after March 13?

[Above The Clouds]

Incredible, after years of having restrictions on liquids, food substances and intrusive body scans by the jobs worth, airport security they finally let a terror suspect caught with a viable explosive device in his hand luggage fly a couple of days later.

You just couldn't make it up

[DaveReidUK]

Very strange article:

"It is unclear what flight the man was due to board and whether the detected device was viable."

Can you get as far as security at MAN without a valid boarding pass ?

[wiggy]

I think both articles are strange TBH, as I read it the "it is unclear ..,,," can be read as being unclear to the jurno and/or unclear to the Police.....

[Piltdown Man]

I wonder which bit of security found the device. Was it the hand baggage search or was it the real security behind the scenes that said: "Look in this man's bag."? I'm glad the device was detected but I worry that this may have been a test run. Another interesting question would be about this gentleman's name, ethnicity and background. Are there any surprises or are we not allowed to ask?

[wiggy]

I know it is a bit old fashioned, silly me, but this is still the UK, with due process etc. MIght it not be worth waiting until after the court case before raising the nationality, background and ethnicity issue. Then I agree it might be "fair game".

[Cuillin Hills]

Question, literally, should be asked in parliament about this.

I do not like the word 'viable'.

I cannot believe he was allowed to travel.

Was the airline and Captain informed of the passenger detention at security?

If informed, I know what my answer would have been.

[Trav a la]

Security seem to have done their job very well.

It's the prosecution decision makers, the CPS, or whatever they are called these days, that appear to have messed up.

[HighAndFlighty]

HighAndFlighty

From the article linked by wiggly...

Nadeem Muhammed, of Tinline Street, Bury, is charged with possessing an improvised explosive device under the Explosive Substances Act of 1883

[Heathrow Harry]

A lot more to this than meets the eye I think:-

"Jessica Hart (prosecuting) said there was no intention to proceed under terrorist legistlation"

[surely not]

I would like to think that he was allowed to travel, without his pipe bomb, so that he could be monitored as to who he met and where he went when he got to Italy.

Surely it would be unlikely that the decision to let him go was made at a junior level?

[.Scott]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Very strange article:

"It is unclear what flight the man was due to board and whether the detected device was viable."

Can you get as far as security at MAN without a valid boarding pass ?

Since they're using the term "Luggage", my first guess was that it was caught by the hold baggage system. But other news articles are saying "hand luggage".

They are describing the device as being the size of a large market pen. That's pretty small for a pipe bomb and it's probably why they didn't recognize it as an intentional threat on first inspection.

[golfyankeesierra]

So it was a bomblet.. test run perhaps?

[roybert]

It's even better in Canada where Security at the airport handed the pipe bomb back to the passenger to take on the flight. See link to article from 2014


Pipe bomb handed back to passenger Skylar Murphy by airport guard - Edmonton - CBC News

[G-CPTN]

From Pipe bomb handed back to passenger Skylar Murphy by airport guard:-

The device was in a camera bag, which Murphy says he placed there in February 2013 when he and and a friend made two pipe bombs.
They blew up one in a field. Murphy said he left the other one in his bag and forgot about it.
The device was about 15 centimetres long and five centimetres in diameter with screws at both sides. A three-metre-long fuse ran through the device, which was filled with gunpowder.

Reportedly, Murphy was told “You can keep it.”
Murphy insisted the guard take it.
He was then allowed to clear security and board a plane to Mexico where he was travelling with his family on a weeklong vacation.

[RealUlli]

Handing back a bomb

G-CPTN:

I think the security screeners actually did a reasonably good job there. They found the device, then used some judgement to see if the guy was a terrorist or if he indeed just forgot about the device. I think it's possible to judge from the reaction of the guy if he expected the device to be in his bag.

I once got told a story of a guy who flew with a set of shuriken - he had got them as a present, stowed them in his camera bag (seems to be a good candidate for such stuff, as most people don't pack and unpack it frequently and forget about stuff in there) and forgot about them. He didn't get caught, but I'm told it was definitely an "oh sh*t" moment when he unpacked his bag for some other reason and found them...

I, myself, once brought a waiter's tool (one of those things with a bottle opener, a corkscrew and a knife) on a vacation trip and back - I had forgotten to unpack it from my carry-on after a non-flying trip somewhat earlier and only found it after getting back from the vacation... oops.

I'd be more worried about some attacker detonating one of those pipe bombs in the queue before security... On the other hand, wasn't the bomb that brought down Metrojet 9268 roughly that size?

What I'm trying to say, I believe bringing banned stuff on planes happens more frequently than most people think...

(Disclaimer: I'm just SLF)

[EEngr]

I don't know UK law, but it may have been a case of not being able to hold him for longer than a certain period without charges. And the test results may not have come back in time.

On the other hand, I imagine that his apartment was given a good going-over while he was on his final holiday in Italy.