Man makes explosives from things purchased in post-security airport stores

boing
42

Perception is not going to do anything to an airplane.

43

What you are describing is basically exactly what happened with the underpants bomber. How much harm did that cause?

44

So if the device distributes carrots at high velocity is it ok?

(yes i did read that other thread - or at least until my mind tried to short itself out in protest)

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45

presto, TSA compliant multi-tool: http://www.amazon.com/Leatherman-831488-Style-PS-Multitool/dp/B0058RX9NU

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46

Well, it’s not exactly like Capt Underpants, is it, because Capt Underpants had a fizzle whereas this thing actually worked as intended. If Capt Underpants had had some accomplices to take advantage of the momentary fear & confusion, and/or his skiddies had detonated as intended I’m reasonably confident you’d be viewing him somewhat differently.

As for harm, there are several ways to measure that. Even though it was a fizzle …

  1. Capt Underpants roasted his nuts. That sounds like some definite harm.
  2. The TSA got a raging hardon, and decided to enact even more useless yet invasive procedures. That sounds like some harm too.
47

Well, we got the pornoscanners after that incident. Having your daughter believe that, for her own safety, someone has to see her naked is damage enough, right?

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48

You know, when you’re quoting from The Bumper Book Of Trite Aphorisms, it’s only polite to reference the page number.

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49

Strange, that’s a direct quote from page 69 of ‘The Bumper Book Of Trite Aphorisms’.

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50

I wonder if one could aerosolize some alcohol-based hand sanitizer to get an air/fuel bomb effect? Probably would require timing out of the realm of a crude device – a small charge to create the aerosol followed by the larger boom/igniter.

51

Imagine filling a hollow aluminum walking stick with thermite.

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52

Actually, metal lithium batteries are more dangerous than Li-ion, as far as the FAA is concerned, because they can make a fire that can’t be extinguished. Look it up in their literature.

53

And yet, not a pornscanner on the planet will notice all the tinder you care to carry with you…

54

AS an aside, once one had taken over a plane, what’s the betting that even an old-school ‘Take this plane to Cuba!’ style hijack would be shot down? I reckon they’d vape it just on principle.

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55

How much harm, and to which part of the bill of rights?

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56

And then stop.

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57

That’s nothing. McGyver could produce a bomb with the lint in his pocket.

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58

Just spill a bit of mercury or gallium on some exposed aluminium, the amalgam will cause structural failure before too long. You don’t even have to be there to die when it happens.

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59

I don’t deny that, per unit mass or volume, lithium primary cells are nastier; I just suspect that security might get suspicious more quickly of somebody with a large quantity of AAs (and the ones you buy at the duty-free you have less convenient opportunities for sophisticated modding), while the current laptop market is more or less a race to cram as much battery into the chassis as is physically possible, which means very low suspicion per unit volume, and trivial acceptance of a large chunk of nearly x-ray opaque incipient metal fire built into every laptop.

60

Since you mention it, the CDC/NIOSH has some convenient data. Most of the concern is toxicological; but fuel-air explosions under certain dust concentration conditions are a potential hazard…

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61

Yes, but not the kind of problem you’re most likely thinking of. The film “US Marshals,” among countless others, shows explosive decompression to be a much more “explosive” event than it actually is. Popping open a window will burst ear drums and make things loud, but unless the pilots don’t act (unlikely), it’s more a nuisance than anything else. The danger comes from loss of oxygen and everyone getting hypoxia. These are why oxygen masks pop down. Recall a few years ago when a hole was torn into the roof of a Southwest 737 at cruise altitude and speed. The pilots acted quickly and descended in order to keep everyone breathing.

(You’ll also recall an Olympus flight a few years ago that crashed due to a loss in cabin pressure making everyone pass out. The pilots did not, IIRC, follow procedures and failed to start a decent or put on their O2 masks).