the power-1 drop of binary explosive-should we be worried?

[w30wcf]

http://www.abum.com/41395/Extreme-Explo ... -Form.html

[alnitak]

Check out this thread in the Politics forum:

http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =4&t=23789

[Hobie]

I would like particulars to evaluate this. Must be something I didn't know about!

[Old Ironsights]

I've watched that before. I say... no more worried than you were before you ever saw that.

There are a couple of things going on there in that video - none of which really have anything to do with air travel (as the clip intimates).

First, a heat-sensitive binary LOW explosive isn't that hard to concoct. What the video did was magnify the percieved effect of a relitively minor chemical explosion by placing it within a frangible sealed container (the pen housing) and placing it up against an "effect target" (watermellon).

The chemical explosion was given magnified "brisance" (shattering effect) through the mechanical action of the pen body containing it for microseconds. That was magnified again (visually) from the dramatic hydrostatic effects of rapidly pushing a pressure wave through a mostlid liquid medium surrounded by a frangible casing (watermellon).

Tape that squib (and now that I think about it, it DOES look like Hollywood Squib Paste... which is a DOT/FAA Air-transportable binary) to a plane bulkhead or window and it's only going to leave a scortch mark.

Now - can that binary be used to ignite a Primary Explosive? Probably. I don't know its burn rate, but it looks like it could be used to at least set off C4. But alone? In tose "undetectable" quantities? Not a big deal.

[Hobie]

What really concerns me is that a carrier, mule if you will, who will ingest the explosive together with detonator (or perhaps have it surgically inserted) will simply take a window seat and wait for a command detonation signal somewhere along the route. Such lengths aren't required for trains, buses (even those going through delicate choke points like a tunnel), etc.

[AJMD429]

What really concerns me is that a carrier, mule if you will, who will ingest the explosive together with detonator (or perhaps have it surgically inserted) will simply take a window seat and wait for a command detonation signal somewhere along the route. Such lengths aren't required for trains, buses (even those going through delicate choke points like a tunnel), etc.

Yep. Since they are suicidal anyway, fanatic about their hatred, and have entire 'schools' to debate and develop tactics, it has seemed obvious to me from the start that an in-body explosive would show up sooner or later. Short of a CT scan before flight, I'm not sure how such a thing could be detected.

I say make everyone have a ham sandwich before flight, but I suppose if they are fanatic enough they'd give up their 72 virgins 'for the good of mankind' or whatever, and eat the evil pork.

[Hobie]

The Saudis have supposedly already reported an explosive device carried inside a living body.

[colo native]

explosive device carried inside a living body, hummmm thats what my wife saz about my, well ya kno

[Modoc ED]

Well, just look at inmates that carry contraband in their rectums. What's to stop a terrorist from inserting a sectioned 6" long or 7" long 3/4" tube up their rectum with one section full of a liquid explosive with the other section containing a detonator or a small lighter and a length of fuse. Those full scan machines that are being touted would not be able to detect such an internal rectal device as those machines only show what's on the outside of the body -- not internal body parts or foreign objects.

In my mind, the terrorist that tried to blow up the plane on Christmas Day failed in his mission because he waited to try to detonate the device on landing in the U.S. so as to have an incident in the U.S. instead of blowing the aircraft out of the sky over the ocean. He had little time and was hurried after landing whereas he would have had all the time in the world had he tried to detonate the device over the oceean while in an onboard bathroom unobserved.

[olyinaz]

It's just a matter of time. These people are as nuts as the Devil can make them, they're just as smart as you or I, and they're not going to give up or go away until Jesus comes again so get used to the threat and the occasional "victory" on their side.

What you should be worried about is a massive conflagration in-flight. Fire fighting capabilities on an airliner are extremely limited and if several of these nuts pool their resources and get real good fire going over the Atlantic or Pacific that's it.

Oly