[stlnative]

Oops... I read earlier they were halfway through the flight when it occurred. This story says 20 minutes or so into the flight.

My guess is that officials know who owns the phone by now. What would be odd is if the phone did not have any numbers stored in it or any type of call history on it or if the phone and bag are free of fingerprints.

[Southack]

It could have been something as simple as a wrong number disrupting a terror plot scheduled for a later flight.

The story at the link seems to allude to the phone being hidden under a toilet seat cushion, as best as I can make out. The on-board toilets use chemicals to control ordinary natural stenches...but at least one of those chemicals is a bomb component...available to the terrorists by default.

Tough to play defense against these guys. Better to go on the offense and kill them first, instead.