A Potentially explosive device has been found in the cargo bay of a jet at Sydney airport - and accidentally carried into the passenger terminal. An initial NSW Police report has concluded the substance was thermite, a chemical used in grenades. It was found wrapped in a cardboard toilet roll tube with a firework sparkler attached as a 30-second fuse. The Daily Telegraph has learned the device was discovered in a knotted plastic bag, along with matches, in the cargo hold of a Virgin Blue 737-300 jet by baggage handlers at 11.30am on Monday. But the find was kept quiet, with Australian Federal Police attempting to trace its origin. A spokesman for Virgin last night played down the threat, declining to comment about the substance. But he confirmed it was "a flammable substance, powder and matches" and Virgin was reviewing how staff inadvertently carried the package into the airport. "The point to make is that the device was not checked baggage or hand luggage, that is, it was not screened and appears to have been left [in the aircraft] by someone with access to the airfield," he said.
Thermite is widely used by the military for its armour-piercing capabilities. It burns without oxygen at 3000C and melts metal on contact. Its civilian use includes welding. The package was found lying loose in the baggage hold of the airliner on Monday on flight DJ-747 from Maroochydore to Sydney. Despite handlers not knowing what the roll was, they carried it into the Mascot domestic passenger Terminal 2 to be X-rayed. A NSW Police report has concluded it was a "non-electrical improvised explosive device [IED]" containing the compound thermite. The AFP is now having the substance more throroughly analysed by laboratory technicians.
Investigators have not ruled out the possibility it was planted by a disgruntled airport or aircraft worker. It may also have been designed to burn the plane while it was on the ground because it is impossible for passengers or crew to get into the plane's hold during flight. Virgin is at the centre of an angry exchange over its handling of the incident. The airline failed to immediately alert the airport's security teams of the find, instead carrying it into the airport. It was then that airport security were alerted who sounded an immediate "duress alert". The package was then moved to a quarantined area in a valet car park, which was sealed off and the bomb squad called in. A NSW Police spokesman last night confirmed police were not told of the incident until one hour and 40 minutes after the discovery. |