PETN is the same explosive carried components also included “...contained nitric acid,
by the so-called ‘shoe bomber’, triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - a
Richard Reid, who tried to blow up homemade, very powerful, and very with the aim being that
American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris unstable explosive, implicated in
to Miami three days before Christmas several terrorist cases - and “other the TATP would react
in 2001, only months after the world’s ingredients”. TATP could be used
worst terrorist atrocity. PETN is no as a detonator but in this case it with the acid and burn
more detectable with standard airport did not work. It was intended by
scanners than it was back then. In the Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, as to detonation, thereby
same chemical family as nitroglycerine, a detonator for his PETN device -
PETN is so stable that it does not but he failed to set it off as he was triggering the PETN...”
easily detonate. You can drop it, play unable to light the fuse in his shoe.
football with it or even set it on fire TATP is so unstable it can go off Society following the revelations of
without causing detonation. PETN can by itself under vibration, heat, and the August 2006 UK ‘liquid explosives
be bought on the black market or other environmental circumstances. plot’ (see below), “When the two main
synthesised - which the IRA sometimes If it freezes, or descends by about 1 chemicals (of TATP) are mixed together,
did in order to make boosters for their m, it will detonate. If it were a TATP chances are it will instantaneously
vast ammonium nitrate bombs. liquid chemical mix in the syringe, and violently react.” However, much
In 2002 the FBI carried out a it is conceivable that the contents depends how much TATP was there;
reconstruction with a test device of the syringe were sufficient to set how it was connected to the main PETN
containing only 50 grammes of PETN, off the PETN, but while TATP could charge; how it was contained, and
based on the shoe-bomber’s device. be a crystalline solid or a liquid it of considerable importance, how long
It succeeded in blowing out the side
of a disused aircraft. Abdulmutallab
had nearly one and a half times more
PETN than Reid had hidden in his shoe.
But PETN is powerful in even smaller
quantities - as little as a few grams.
Clearly the chemical initiation method
was the weak link in the attempt, rather
than the amount of explosive charge.
The Detonator:
why didn’t it work?
Abdulmutallab may have come very
close to making his device work.
Initial reports at the end of 2009
suggested that the device was par-
tially set off by using a syringe to
inject a liquid, thought to be some
kind of acid, into the main explo-
sive charge, being the powder and This image obtained and provided by ABC News shows the syringe detonator used on the failed plot to blow up a
that, although the bomb ignited, it Northwest airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. (AP Photo/ABC News)
did not actually explode; this was
probably because the acid did not is usually deployed as a solid - not the TATP had been made before the
properly come into contact with the suitable for a syringe. attack - as this type of explosive has a
PETN main charge. When ignition The question remains, however, short shelf life of just a few days. Other
occurred, it started a small fire with that if the liquid in the syringe didn’t details would be relevant: whether it
flames licking the inside of the aircraft cause detonation, why didn’t the TATP was kept in water or lubricant (TATP
until it was put out by a brave Dutch at least cause a fireball? Even if the could be dissolved into a liquid), and
passenger and cabin crew. Popping chemicals failed to create an explosion, whether the three main ingredients -
noises were heard, similar to small a major fire would be the expected hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and an
fireworks. Passengers smelt burning result. A small fire did break out, and acid - were properly mixed.
and saw that Abdulmutallab’s trouser it would appear that sheer bravery and
leg was on fire – as well as the wall of luck meant it was put out in time. What was in the Syringe?
the aircraft. According to Neal Langerman, a The syringe was first said to contain
After the suspect was indicted, chemical industry consultant speaking a glycol-based liquid explosive and
US authorities said the bomb on behalf of American Chemical intended as a detonator. It was later
February 2010 Aviationsecurityinternational www.asi-mag.com 41
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