I found the following story on Yahoo headline news.
I think this will cause INVN and the other bomb detection
stocks to drop on Monday. Richard
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Sunday September 22 2:58 AM EDT
Bomb Test Brought Key Chemicals Onto TWA Jet
NEW YORK (Reuter) - A canine training exercise six weeks before the TWA Flight 800 disaster used the
same explosive chemicals that investigators later found small traces of in the wreckage, investigators said
Saturday.
``We can now confirm that those same explosive elements were used in canine training,'' said Ed Kittel, a
special agent with the Federal Aviation Administration.
``We can say one thing for sure: that (this is) one possible source of how some trace amounts -- we're talking
sub-gram quantities of explosives -- could have wound up on this aircraft.''
Kittel identified these explosives as PETN, RDX and dynamite and smokeless powder, which have
nitroglycerine.
Both PETN and RDX are key ingredients in Semtex, a plastic explosive that was used in bombing Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. Some missiles also have these chemicals in their
warheads.
At a press briefing, Kittel said that the FAA had learned that St. Louis police had June 10 conducted an
exercise aboard the same TWA Boeing 747 that later crashed off Long Island en route to Paris, killing all
230 people on board.
In that June excercise, police hid the chemicals, kept in small packages, in places such as the overhead bins
and in the seats to test the dogs' ability to detect explosives, he said.
Investigators do not know why the TWA flight exploded before crashing into the sea, but have privately said
they believe a bomb likely caused the crash. The only evidence cited to back up this theory has been the
microscopic traces of chemicals found on a few pieces of wreckage.
(last few paragraphs omitted) |
