CNN now reports that an actual bomb was indeed found on board the airplane:
In Buenos Aires, Marcelo Sain, head of Argentina's Airport Security Police, told local television that authorities found "a Coca-Cola bottle with mud, and inside it was a tube with ammonium nitrate, a little bit of dynamite and a detonator," according to Reuters.
In Houston, KTRK-13 quoted law enforcement sources as saying that the man had a blasting cap, a homemade fuse and a quarter-pound of ammonium nitrate, in addition to the dynamite.
Mark Mancuso, spokesman for the Houston Airport System, said he could not confirm the allegations but that "some additional items of contraband may have been found."
So to me, actual dynamite + ammonium nitrate + blasting cap = bomb ...and shame shame shame on the officials that allowed this bomb to travel into the CO system and shame shame shame on officials for not detaining the questionable passenger sooner.
In related news, isn't it absolutely amazing how many flights are being diverted or being brought down in an emergency landing due to security or terrorism issues? Today, 7 flights came down in the US --one of which was a CO flight from Corpus Christi to El Paso to Bakersfield in which the crew became concerned over a missing panel in the lavatory. I believe there was an equal number of emergency landings and diversions in US airspace yesterday.
With these "false alarms", it's interesting to see that dynamite actually makes its way onto a CO flight.