Plane passes to be checked for explosives
Sep 13, 2004 | 8:12 pm
#46
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: 11 Longhaired Friends of Jesus; Chartreuse Microbus; just demoted to AA nonentity
Posts: 282
Sure enough, I was looking at RDX and talking about NG. Anyway, Spiff, if you get a chance to toss any references my way, I'd be most interested--everything I have here dates from 1998 and is more or less exclusively looking for the NO2 moiety rather than the organic base.
Sep 22, 2004 | 9:58 pm
#49
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: 11 Longhaired Friends of Jesus; Chartreuse Microbus; just demoted to AA nonentity
Posts: 282
I've been digging on and off, and my best guess is that the hand-lotion, etc., false positives spottily reported in the press and attributed to things that sound like the "glyceri-" in nitroglycerine are, in fact, false positives rather than any attempt to target the organic base. I haven't learned nearly enough about ion mobility spectrometry (which I'm guessing to be the detection method in these cases) to speculate what actual compounds might be the culprits, or even whether they would be aminated, for that matter. If anyone wants to share, I'm all ears.
Last edited by Wheezer; Sep 22, 2004 at 10:33 pm Reason: Typo
Sep 23, 2004 | 8:49 am
#51
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Colorado
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,745
a Link
Originally Posted by Wheezer
I've been digging on and off, and my best guess is that the hand-lotion, etc., false positives spottily reported in the press and attributed to things that sound like the "glyceri-" in nitroglycerine are, in fact, false positives rather than any attempt to target the organic base. I haven't learned nearly enough about ion mobility spectrometry (which I'm guessing to be the detection method in these cases) to speculate what actual compounds might be the culprits, or even whether they would be aminated, for that matter. If anyone wants to share, I'm all ears.
Sep 23, 2004 | 9:58 am
#52
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: BOS and vicinity
Programs: Former UA 1P
Posts: 3,730
CNN is reporting the document residue-scanners are being used at ORD, LAX, JFK, and DCA as of 9/22. The article implies that only SSSSelectees, alarm-ees, and those who are "selected by security workers" will be scanned.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/09/23....ap/index.html
If TSA does this right, it could be an actual security improvement. If 85-year-olds taking nitro are delayed for "questioning" so long that they miss their flight or denied boarding, it will be another fiasco.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/09/23....ap/index.html
"If you trigger the device, you will go through a questioning process as to what have you touched, where have you been, what have you done?" Zunk said.
Sep 23, 2004 | 10:22 pm
#53
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: 11 Longhaired Friends of Jesus; Chartreuse Microbus; just demoted to AA nonentity
Posts: 282
Originally Posted by eyecue
I could shed a lot of light on this but suffice it to say that I cant. Here is a link for you though [...] [/url]
Oct 5, 2004 | 7:16 am
#56
Original Poster
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Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 46,817
Originally Posted by MgmtConsult1974
I guess I should not shoot bottle rockets or blow off fireworks while holding my boarding pass. 
Depends on where you want to spend the night, no?
-Mark