PrintApril 2, 2008
Man tries to smuggle bomb parts on plane
A Jamaican national has been charged with attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft at the Orlando airport.
He was arrested after authorities noticed he was "acting suspiciously:"
The suspect was identified late Tuesday as Kevin Brown, 32, a Jamaican national who was scheduled to fly on Air Jamaica Flight 80 to Montego Bay at 2:55 p.m.Brown was fingered by a TSA behavioral specialist hired last year to look for people who may be hiding something. After he checked in his baggage, Brown was taken aside and his luggage searched.
Transportation Security Administration officers spotted him acting suspiciously about noon, TSA and law-enforcement officials said. Several officials said the man was "acting strange" and questioned his mental stability.
Brown was charged with attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft and booked into theSeminole County Jail late Tuesday. He will appear before a federal judge in Orlando today.
Wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, Brown was searched by a bomb technician on a curb outside the airport terminal. His camouflage-style backpack also was seized and searched by an Orlando Fire Department bomb squad. TSA searched his luggage and found "suspicious items," according to TSA officials.
Among the items seized were two galvanized pipes, end caps, two small containers of BB pellets, batteries, two containers of liquids, a laptop computer and bomb-making literature, according to an FBI statement released Tuesday night.
Obviously, Brown was not interested in blowing up any airplanes - at least the plane he was going to take to Jamaica. The parts were disassembled and authorities say there was no danger. But that doesn't mean he wasn't planning on setting off a bomb on a plane at a later date.
I wonder what the PC crowd is going to say about a "behavioral specialist" on duty at airports. I'm sure they'll find some way to criticize this common sense approach to security. Why not? They've criticized everything else we've done to make our air travel safer.
