Cleverly disguised as common objects, bomb could be put together on flight
Friday, August 11, 2006
By Sonya Fatah
They were to board as many as 12 passenger planes heading to major U.S. destinations. Two bombers planned to get onto each aircraft. In their hand luggage they were going to carry liquid explosives concealed in apparently innocuous beverage containers and other “common objects.” Once aboard and flying at a high altitude, they would set off the explosives through a disposable camera flash. They expected to bring down plane after plane.
While it’s still too early to know precisely what was planned, information from officials speaking off the record and from published sources suggests that the attacks could have had a devastating impact.
They had planned to use peroxide-based explosives, an official FBI report said, and to insert a disposable camera flash into the explosive substance to detonate the bomb. Just how much damage liquid-based explosives could cause depends on the kind of chemicals involved and the quantities used. But forensic-chemistry, terrorism and air-aviation analysts agree that the impact of such explosions could easily either blow up a plane or kill passengers through inhaling toxic fumes after a fire.
Any oxidizing agent can be used in setting off an explosion, according to Dr. Ramesh Makhija, president of R&R Laboratories in Peterborough, Ont.
The standard recipe for an explosion involves an oxidant and a fuel. Scientists say putting together chemicals for an explosion requires some knowledge of ratios and properties but it isn’t rocket science.
“A first-year chemistry student could do it,” said Bob Burk, an associate professor of chemistry at Carleton University.
But Dr. Makhija says putting together such bombs isn’t that easy.
“Those who do this, they do a lot of practice first,” he said. “This is done by professionals.”
A variety of store-bought chemicals and products can be used to create explosives, with blasts ranging from the harmless to the very powerful. In a contained space, such as an aircraft toilet, an explosion triggered by a physical or electric shock could easily create a gaping hole in the pressurized airframe, analysts said.
“There are lots of explosives that are in liquid or gel form and all they need is some sort of spark,” said Jay Siegel, director of the forensic and investigative sciences program at Indiana University. “Anything that can generate electricity can be used to set off explosives. They use cellphones . . . now.”
Moreover, it is easy to mask these liquids as cosmetics and creams.
“Something like nitroglycerin is an oily liquid that can pass as nail polish and be used as a weapon,” Dr. Siegel said. White, slippery liquids that are explosive materials can easily be disguised as lotions and petroleum jelly. Similarly, hydrogen peroxide, which is a clear substance, looks like water.
An experiment to test the capacity of such combinations was carried out combining an easily bought hair cream, with sodium chlorate, or bleach, says Dr. Siegel.
“They used half a tube of Brylcreem and a cup full of sodium chlorate and they put a crater in the ground with it,” he said. “In a closed space like an airplane there is no question you can bring the whole plane down. Destroy it.”
In 1994, an al-Qaeda-linked operative, under the leadership of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, set off liquid explosives on a Philippine Airlines plane bound for Japan. One passenger died and 10 others were injured. The attempt, part of the Bojinka Plot, was a failure. “[Al-Qaeda] learns from their successes but more importantly they learn from their failures. They messed up on mixing the explosives. What they have learnt since is that you don’t mix the explosives in advance. You mix them on location.”
Penetrating an aircraft’s fuselage isn’t difficult, according to Martin Rudd, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies. “You can picture a terrorist doing this mixture in the washroom, leaning against the fuselage, creating a puncture. At 30,000 feet you get an explosion by the on-rush of air and fracture the fuselage.”
Planes aren’t built to sustain explosive damage, said Andrew Thomas an aviation-security analyst who teaches at the University of Akron in Ohio, and has authored two books on aviation security. “Any time you mix explosives in a high-altitude environment with all that fuel, it’s not a good recipe.”
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