Explosive Material Missing At Logan
by Aaron Margolis, September 8th, 2006 at 01:22pm
Just days before the 5th anniversary of 9/11, a piece of explosive material has gone missing near the runways of Logan International Airport.
An 8-ounce chunk of the type of explosive used by the terrorists who downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, remains missing near runways at Logan International Airport this afternoon after it was lost or stolen during a canine training exercise, state police said.
The material, called Semtex, was believed to be somewhere along the airport’s Harborside Drive, or perhaps inside a street sweeper - but is not live because it lacks a blasting cap, state police said.
Nonetheless, experts say Semtex is highly dangerous and the lost material poses a significant risk.
“The search for the material is ongoing,” the state police said in a statement. “At this time, it is unclear if the material was stolen or fell off the vehicle” to which it had been affixed on Wednesday.
Police focused their search on a 1.5-mile stretch of road which runs near Runway 4L at Logan. But the fact that the Semtex - about the size of two chocolate candy bars - is missing did not keep planes from arriving and departing from the airport, police said.
About 8:10 p.m. Wednesday the bomb detection unit noticed that the truck bearing the explosive was missing from the lot. Troopers found the driver about eight to 10 minutes later and began scouring Harborside Drive for the Semtex.
Costine said the driver was interviewed by troopers but is not thought to have purposely driven off with the explosive. “He did not know the material was in the vehicle,” she said. “We would not identify him as a suspect.”
She criticized the troopers involved for not paying attention to the vehicle with the explosive. “I think there was a miscommunication,” she said. “They should have noticed. The people doing the exercise should have noticed.”
5 years ago, two of the four hijacked airplanes came from Logan.
Entry Filed under: Terrorism
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