Dateline HARTFORD, Conn. An NBC News story.
http://www.nbc30.com/news/9746701/detail.html

A 21-year-old student from Old Lyme, Conn., is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday after bringing something on to an airplane that he should not have.

Huck Fish is accused of bringing a stick of dynamite on board a Continental Airlines flight.

Fish was arrested Friday after the item was found in his checked baggage by bomb-sniffing dogs during a stopover in Houston.

The man was returning after a trip to Argentina. Fish's father told NBC 30 News that his son had gotten the dynamite as a souvenir while touring a mine.


From North Jersey Media Group
A college student on a flight bound for Newark Liberty International Airport was detained in Houston on Friday after authorities found explosives in his baggage, federal officials said.

Although Howard MacFarland Fish, 21, was being held in Texas, the FBI determined that he did not intend to commit an act of terrorism, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Still, ICE agents were consulting with federal prosecutors to determine whether to charge Fish with a criminal offense.

The Continental Airlines flight was one of six U.S. flights affected by security concerns Friday.

Continental's Newark-bound flight originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and stopped in Houston about 6 a.m., where passengers exited to clear customs. After a Customs dog singled out Fish's luggage, agents inspected his bag and discovered "prohibited explosive items," according to a statement issued by ICE.

It was unclear what those items were. The Houston Fire Department said Fish had a stick of dynamite. But a Customs spokesman in Washington said Fish had a vial of ammonium nitrate, a powder used in explosives, in his checked luggage, and a fuse in his carry-on baggage. The plane was carrying 173 passengers, Continental said.

Federal officials would not cite Fish's explanation for carrying explosives. However, Fish a junior at Lafayette College in southeastern Pennsylvania, said he worked in mining and often handled explosives, fire officials said.
"It turned out the guy worked in some mine field in Ecuador," Assistant Fire Chief Omero Longoria said. "That is where he was traveling from."
A woman who answered the phone at a house in Old Lyme, Conn., thought to be his parents' home, said she was related to Fish but declined to comment.
Longoria said fire officials held the plane at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport for about an hour. Customs and FBI agents then informed firefighters "there was no identified threat to the aircraft," so fire officials allowed it to leave for Newark, Longoria said. It departed at 8:49 a.m.

When the plane landed in Newark about 1:40 p.m., the airport's operator ordered it boarded and screened at a secure area. About 170 passengers had to deplane and were taken by bus to terminals, Port Authority spokesman Marc La Vorgna said.

"Everything else was determined to be OK," La Vorgna said. "It was an extra, precautionary measure."


From News.com.au
From correspondents in Washington
August 26, 2006 05:17am
A MALE passenger was detained in Houston overnight when "explosive residue" was detected on his clothes after he disembarked from a Continental Airlines flight from Buenos Aires, US officials said.

The flight continued on to Newark Airport, New Jersey, without the passenger, or his baggage, but authorities decided to order a precautionary security sweep of the aircraft when it landed.

"He was going through the customs area when they detected some explosive residue," Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said.

"That individual is now being held by the FBI," she said, adding that explosives sniffing dogs had been brought in to check the passenger's baggage.
No details were available of the man's identity or nationality.

So, which is it, he had residue on his cloths, or on his luggage? Do you see how often the journalists get the facts wrong when reporting a story?

Some crack security team. He was able to get the stick of dynamite on board. Maybe if it was in a water bottle they would have arrested him at the gate…

As for Mr. Fish, all I can say is “dumb ass.”

If the man was on the plane with a BOMB!! all the way from south america to Houston, TX, and he did not set it off, then what's the likelyhood that he would have at all?

Oh, and what's the point in searching the plane at its final destination AFTER you've let 173 passengers back on the plane to potentially be blown out of the sky after you've pulled a BOMB!!'er off the plane?

:rolleyes:

Another perfect example of what Bruce Schneier calls "Security Theater"...useless dramatics for the sake of placating the sheeple.

Hmm, heard of the farce that was the supposedly foiled attack in the UK with gatorade explosives or summat? BBC, FOX, and CNN all had different stories! Looks like the governot isn't doing a good job of making sure it's sheeple placating stories match up! I really agree with you NBK about "security theater."

How much of what the news feeds us do you think happened in the way it is told? Or that it happened at all?

+++++

Yes, we know about the 'liquid explosives' scare. You might want to UTFSE to find an existing thread about that.

NBK

BBC, FOX, and CNN all had different stories! Looks like the governot isn't doing a good job of making sure it's sheeple placating stories match up! I really agree with you NBK about "security theater."

Some is "security theater", but a lot of it is people pushing so hard to be "first" with a story that they don't check any facts. If they can't tell the story in a 15 second sound bite, they're afraid the the watcher will wander over to another channel.

And he should wander... to the remote control and turn the damned thing off.
It steadily makes less and less sense to me. As far as I know, these security measures used to be at least a bit rational - e.g. searching for weapons and explosives before boarding. But checking for them after the flight...
Maybe he was taking it with him to actually lessen the probability of a bomb attack? The probability that the plane will have an explosive onboard is not so high. The probability that it will have two explosive charges onboard is even less.
I know it is nonsense, but can somebody be really so dumb to take a dynamite souvenir on a plane?