Originally Posted by
exerda
There are some commercially-available binary explosives that can be mixed without time/temperature controls and be rendered explosive.
All I have seen are 1 solid + 1 liquid binaries. I have yet to see two liquids.
Originally Posted by
exerda
However, these all have downsides that render them unsuitable for use as a weapon to bring down a plane, if the TSA does their job correctly.
For example, many depend upon nitromethane as the liquid component. This isn't exactly an innocuous compound. ETD would flag it in a heartbeat. It's toxic. It's flammable. It smells funny. Etc., etc.
Most that I am aware of also require a detonator; you can't just shock them like TATP or nitroglycerine. That means the terrorist also has to get their detonator onto the plane.
Then again, since places like EWR fail at 90%+ in detecting potential bomb components, I guess getting these things onto the plane is actually fairly simple.
But nothing the TSA currently does would stop these threats at all, either!!!
(And I have yet to hear the water ban apologists explain to me why liquids are such a more credible threat than solid explosives, which presumably could with all the focus on liquids be smuggled onto a plane without a problem... put a slab of one inside a walkman, a laptop's spare battery, etc.--if you don't get ETD'd, you're golden!)
That's really the problem - TSA refuses to properly employ explosives detection technology and instead uses useless harassment as a poor substitute.
You are quite correct about nitromethane. ETP or ETD would pick it up in a heartbeat. Too bad Comrade Hawley is too stupid to use such technology and prefers to make us less safe. He should be caned and fired.