Paper Slippers Anyone?

[DamedEscrime]

It occurred to me that with the latest incident on the flight from Paris that we may now be forced to check our shoes at the door and be issued paper slippers when boarding a plane.
:sigh: what next?

[Fencing Angel]

heh.. Strip searching..KIDDING!!!
But really i know what you mean. Its sad on what world is comming to.. but i have to admit that the guy with C4 in his shoe must have thought about what he could use that wouldn't have set off the metel dectors.. so in that sense he really thought this through.

but when you spend that much time planning do to somthing like this, it just goes to show how sad this situation has really gotten. oh well.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[Iwant2bafencer]

I am totally in agreement with you Angel. It really Is sad what the world is coming to, and how bad we've gotten with even simple jokes. For example I used to say you know if someone doesn't want to go somewhere or do something. you say 'Oh come on, it's not like it's gonna kill ya.' I can't say that any more because infortunatly you now never know.

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Carpe Diem

[Mergs]

If in fact this guy had C4 in his shoe and was trying to light it on fire, the only way he could have done any serious damage (other than poisoining the A/C occupants) was then to put his shoes back on and stomp his now flaming feet on the deck to cause it to explode.

C4 (the explosive in M16 Claymore mines) was used by troops to heat C-rations/MRE's in many operations. And many a Purple Heart "winner" got that way from trying to stomp out flaming cooking "fires". Heat + pressure = explosion. Damn.

So this knucklehead was trying to do the same without a blasting cap (metal, distinctive shape, definite no-no (well, for most airport security services, maybe not for the French). Sigh. I think we have a potential Darwin Award winner here, if left to his own devices. IMHO.

[ 12-26-2001: Message edited by: Mergs ]</p>

[Inquartata]

Yes. C4 will burn quite violently, but will not explode from heat alone. You need a shock or mini-explosion, such as is supplied by a detonating device such as a blasting cap.

As to the shoe thing, well, c4 is very malleable. Next time it'll turn up inside a watch, in fake batteries, pressed and painted to look like credit cards, buttons, or what have you. Until we get to the El Al extremes of airport security, the evildoers will always be one step ahead---they know what measures they face and have plenty of leisure to dream up new ways around them...