Air France Bomb Scare

[Boac]

A worrying event, being covered on the media is the diversion of AF463, reported as a 777ER, into Mombasa with a bomb warning. Latest reports from Kenya indicate a device has been found. All safe.

[Boac]

...and equally concerning, it looks as if the 'bomb' was an elaborate hoax. The fact remains, of course, that in all probability crews will NOT be able to determine whether a device is viable and so the perpetrators, whoever they may be, will achieve the result they seek.

Overall, it sounds like a job 'well done' by all involved (a huge relief to Air France in more than one way )

[Rwy in Sight]

It is worrying a package resembling a bomb reached an aircraft - kind of a dry run.

Congratulations to the crew. I am just curious if any bomb warning has been real and a bomb found before it explodes.

[Capetonian]

It could have been assembled on board from perfectly innocent components.

[Boac]

Don't forget, posters, that while the real 'bad guys' need no help, we don't want to help the 'nutters'......

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I am thus far staggered that the various terrorist groups have not used this ploy far more often.

[Boac]

4 pax arrested

[500N]

I hate to say this but whoever put this together certainly made it look like blocks of C4.
Roughly the right dimensions, what looks like Paper wrapping - which I know some came wrapped like that.

Goof to hear they have arrested some people.

[rgbrock1]

I hate to say this but whoever put this together certainly made it look like blocks of C4.
Roughly the right dimensions, what looks like Paper wrapping - which I know some came wrapped like that.

Goof to hear they have arrested some people.

When I first glanced at the photo that's exactly what I thought it was: a block of C4.

Arrested some people? That's good. Now, a public execution would set some precedents.

[Rwy in Sight]

I am thus far staggered that the various terrorist groups have not used this ploy far more often.

I am not sure I follow your train of thought: why bother to create this device when a simple call to a news-agency suffice.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Because huge bureaucracies are much more disabled by numerous inputs of varying nature, especially when input nature changes in less than the cycle time of their system response.
In simple terms, give 'em a new problem before they've finished solving the last one, and for which the previous problem's probable solution won't work.
This is a standard technique in military training exercises to test flexibility and prioritisation - any civilian bureaucracy over a certain size can't cope. Most of the civilian bureaucracies I've dealt with recently would have a coping size of less than 1 !

[Boac]

Latest media reports are that a 'retired police officer' and his wife (reportedly residents of Reunion) were arrested on arrival in Paris.

[Capetonian]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -warn.html

Airports are powerless to stop passengers from smuggling on board the kind of fake bombs that sparked this weekend's major security alert on an Air France flight, flight safety experts have warned.
................

"Aviation security equipment is designed to screen for genuine explosives rather than dummy bombs"

But despite the amateurish nature of such plots - the one found on the Air France jet was little more than cardboard, sheets of paper and a household timer - airline security machines cannot stop such items being brought on board, said Matthew Finn, managing director of the London-based aviation security firm Augmentiq.

"The reality is that aviation security detection equipment is designed to screen for genuine explosives rather than dummy bombs," he told The Telegraph. "They might pick up a couple of blocks of plasticine, a clock and some cables, but it's only if those are all assembled together that it will be spotted.

"If one or more passengers bring those items in separately and then assemble them together before getting on the plane, there is not much anyone can do. If you really wanted to, you could stick some wires together with an I-phone and that could have the same effect. The possibilities are endless."

[Rwy in Sight]

Because huge bureaucracies are much more disabled by numerous inputs of varying nature, especially when input nature changes in less than the cycle time of their system response.
In simple terms, give 'em a new problem before they've finished solving the last one, and for which the previous problem's probable solution won't work.
This is a standard technique in military training exercises to test flexibility and prioritisation - any civilian bureaucracy over a certain size can't cope. Most of the civilian bureaucracies I've dealt with recently would have a coping size of less than 1 !

As far as they are concerned they cope quite well (no aircraft lost by bomb in the Western World for some time -let's keep the Russian Airbus out of the equation for the time being) so they will extend their procedure on the fake bombs as well - no cardboard or timing devices and no speedtape aboard an aircraft by pax.


Fox3 thanks for the fancy explanation.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Yes.
Proving, were it necessary, that the terrorists are not very bright. One does wonder if they are actually interested in World Domination, because their campaigns show a remarkable lack of intelligence. I suppose we should be grateful....

[Boac]

I don't actually think this is a 'terrorist act' (yes, I know GB Junior liked to brand it all that way) but I think it was a stupid 'joke' by a possibly deranged ex-policeman. 'Deranged' because SURELY he must have known what the consequences were - and what did he hope to achieve?

Of course, if he was affiliated to any terrorist group........do I hear them sharpening the blade on Madame Guillotine?

[Boac]

It appears, according to the WSJ (for what that is worth!) that the 'ex-policeman' had in fact been the passenger who alerted the crew and has been released. Let's hope they find the guilty person/s.

[Pinky the pilot]

Let's hope they find the guilty person/s.

Agreed. Then given a fair trial before getting 10 years hard labour!