MAN NABBED WITH BULLETS ON PLANE

New York Post ^ | 1/15/04 | NILES LATHEM

[kattracks]

January 15, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - British cops busted a Sudanese man who carried five bullets aboard a D.C.-to-London flight yesterday and held him on possible terrorism charges. In a security breach that produced red faces from Capitol Hill to Scotland Yard, police arrested the 45-year-old man at a security checkpoint at London's Heathrow Airport about half an hour after the arrival of his Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington's Dulles Airport.

[Just another Joe]

I gotta admit, it makes me feel so much safer knowing they confiscated the guts to my zippo lighter but let this guy through with bullets. </sarcasm>

[hellinahandcart]

What do they think he was going to do-- throw them really really hard at people?

[Cindy]

Actually, the question one might ask is, if he had the bullets, who had/where was the gun?

[hellinahandcart]

Five bullets of two different calibers. You'd need two guns, and I would think you'd want more bullets if you wanted to try something in the air.

[Cindy]

That's right...you would need 2 guns.

[The Raven]

Well, where's the plastic gun? Must be another passenger somewhere (and I hope they searched the planes).

[milemark]

Maybe he was just testing security to see what could get through.

[DooDahhhh]

het, i got through with tweezers!

[marktwain]

I bet that he had them in his carry on by mistake. I often have used my range bag as a carry on, and it would be easy for a few .22 cartridges and a .38 to get into one of the little pockets or a corner and be overlooked. Not much detail to go on, but if he had a bunch of other stuff in the bag, the cartridges would not show up too well.

[meyer]

het, i got through with tweezers!

Scofflaw!!!

[mylife]

Do you think they could also have been used as a detonator?

[FReepaholic]

>>...Well, where's the plastic gun?...<<

Ain't no such thing.

[Mr Ducklips]

I recently took a domestic flight and discovered upon arrival at my destination that my pen-knife was still in my pocket. I didn't realize that I had brought it along - and the screeners obviously didn't either. Not good.

[fourdeuce82d]

Do you think they could also have been used as a detonator?

I don't think so- not for a "high-order explosive like C4/TNT. Don't know about something like ANFO.

Either way, I'd think you'd want to remove the bullet, and fill the case with the explosive you want to detonate- the primer (I think) would work better than the gas from the poweder.

[camas]

good catch. they use a 22 for a nail gun into concrete

[4Freedom]

"...two guns."

Zip guns. A couple short pieces of tubing, metal pipe, or car antenna for the barrels, blocks of wood for the handles, old style bottle and can openers (church keys) to function as the hammers and to hold the firing pins, strong rubber bands to slam the firing pins down on the ammunition, strong tape to hold it all together and voila, two guns. Possibly one zip gun with two barrels.

You just pull the church key back with your thumb and let the rubber band slam it into the top of the ammunition. Simple.

All of these components would look innocent enough scattered around in a bag and could be assembled in minutes into a gun that would be extremely intimidating when stuck up against someone's temple.

A gunsmith could make something like this pretty fast for these terrorists.

Zip guns have been in use for decades.

[diamondjoe]

When I hear about stories like this, I always think of that gun that John Malkovich's character in "In the Line of Fire" used to attempt an assassination of the President.

[expatpat]

I understand they are looking for would-be passengers who didn't make the flight.

[Kay Soze]

Good catch by security!