Maxwell Smart

Some thoughts after reading posts and seeing the video--

1. When my rollaboard, with handle extended, falls over and the handle hits a hard floor, it does make a loud, cracking, startling sound. I completely believe that multiple bags getting knocked over would make sounds that some people could interpret as shots.

2. Where is the owner of the bag? Did he/she just abandon them earlier? In the video, doesn't appear the owner is present at all.

3. TSA agent sees the bag is smoking, but instead of running away, he takes it and moves it to where (if it was an IED) it would do less damage. Frankly, yes, he does deserve praise for that, it was a brave action. I seriously doubt I'd have the guts to intentionally pick up an abandoned, smoking bag and move it.

Boggie Dog

I've watched the video clip several times. From this camera angle there is no evidence of stanchions being knocked over but the view is limited. People saw the smoking backpack and started clearing the area in a fairly orderly manner. What is not apparent is where was the backpacks owner. It does appear that the TSA screener did move the backpack to what he believed was a safer location, so I think he deserves an attaboy if one is handed out.

edit to add:

The video at this link shows several stanchions down.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tsa-agent...004726840.html

petaluma1

The video in this tweet does show stanchions knocked over:


Note that the tweet implies that what the screener did in moving the backpack was not within protocol.

Boggie Dog

I suspect moving the bag did violate protocol. If it was an IED any movement could have been the triggering action and as large as a backpack is that could be a good sized explosion.

Thankfully it was a battery and the battery did its thing before an airplane was airborne.

FliesWay2Much

I can't imagine any terrorist (Islamic or domestic) would place an IED that smokes and burns except for one built by Wile E. Coyote.

FliesWay2Much

Not a peep out of Propaganda Village extolling the clerk as a Hero of the Republic.

WillCAD

I would agree. The limited training I've received has always been that almost anything can trigger an explosive device, particularly one that is poorly constructed. Cell phone or radio use in the vicinity, and especially any contact with the suspected device, are all believed to increase risk of explosion rather than decrease.

Bombs don't tick, beep, or blink, and they only smoke when equipped with an old-fashioned burning fuse like the one the underwear bomber used.

Fire, on the other hand, is something you want to mitigate immediately to prevent spread or explosion. So, when I see something smoking, I think "fire" not "bomb" and my fire sense tingles until I can grab an extinguisher and put it out.

So while this TSO showed some guts, and sort of did the right thing (the actual right thing with a fire is to a) evacuate, b) isolate, and c) extinguish), if he had been dealing with an IED as he thought, his actions would have done nothing more than put himself in greater danger rather than properly assisting with the evac.

As far as his idea of containing a potential blast by placing the device between a concrete pillar and planter, all he really did was direct the blast in one or two directions, and possibly increase the amount of shrapnel from the blast by putting the device near something that would disintegrate in the boom.

Explosions are very tricky, unpredictable things (except to experts). Better to simply not be there, and let the bomb do what it do on its own.

chucko

They really aren't that good at it, especially if the only instruction they had is from YouTube vids.

FliesWay2Much

It's actually pretty simple. Google-ize "ice in mortar tube" for just one example.

FliesWay2Much

Yep, this is pretty complicated. As much as the TSA desperately wanted this to be the thwarting of a terrorist attack, that wasn't the case. It is interesting, however, that whoever owned those bags apparently wasn't around when things started their spontaneous combustion.

I posted the Wile E. Coyote picture to state that bad guys don't use smoking fuses these days. They make a big deal about the fact that the clerk was a veteran. He obviously wasn't a military firefighter or aircrew member because he would have grabbed a fire extinguisher. Who knows? he could have been a personnel or supply NCO who had only fired a weapon during basic training. The fact that the TSA hasn't named this guy and proclaimed him to be a Hero of Democracy is noteworthy.

The conspiracy theorist in me says that it's interesting that this event happened right after the latest IG report became public -- 100% surveillance camera coverage and no owner of the bag identified...

Boggie Dog

The underwear bomber's plastic explosives smoked and burned but did not go boom.

I understand that the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, will be enjoying the winter at ADX Florence in Colorado.

Loren Pechtel

Messing with a hung timing device can causes it to fire (the timer has run down but something isn't making contact, jostling it can cause the broken connection to connect) but if it's already smoking you're not looking at a hung activator. Either the detonator wasn't enough to initiate the main charge (and thus it's harmless), it wasn't a bomb in the first place (harmless) or you're dealing with a burning fuse of some kind (at which point moving it could be beneficial.) Thus, move it if you are brave enough.

Boggie Dog

Do you believe moving the bag complied with TSA policy?

catocony

I'm surprised the clerk didn't throw the bag in the trash can with all of the other explosives TSA confiscated that day.

FliesWay2Much

The battery would have reacted with all of the dihydrogen monoxide in the special TSA trashcan. I can't imagine the consequences!