Posted on 04/09/2014 11:53:13 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Heathrow Airport has been forced to defend its security after a pair of students smuggled two large World War I artillery shells on to a plane and flew to the US.
Baggage screeners made the discovery when the teenagers landed in Chicago, sparking a major incident.
It is believed they picked up the 75mm munitions as souvenirs while on a school trip to a former artillery range in France.
The find prompted the evacuation of O’Hare International Airport by the FBI before officials concluded there was no risk of the shells exploding.
It is not clear how the students, aged 16 and 17, managed to sneak the rusty munitions from the scene and on to their plane in London.
A spokeswoman for Heathrow said: ‘We have the world’s most advanced airport scanning equipment. It is designed to pick up actual threats such as explosive material, whereas these were inert items that posed no threat.’
However, the incident caused enough concern among US authorities that they detained and questioned the teenagers after Monday’s find.
The pair were released without charge and allowed to continue their journey home to Seattle – minus the shells.
A spokesman for the US transportation security administration said: ‘Large munitions are not permitted to be brought on board planes, in carry-on or checked baggage.
‘Small arms ammunition, including under .75 calibre and shotgun shells, can be packed in checked baggage in accordance with airline policies.’
In the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, munitions from the conflict are still regularly uncovered at the sites of former battlefields in central Europe. Last month a shell exploded in Ypres, Belgium, killing two people.
Gee, I hope no bad guys get the idea to try to sneak an IED onto a wide-body jet by disguising it as an artillery shell.
Sleep well, TSA is on guard.
Some of them are still viable today. Good thing those teenagers had the EOD training to know the difference.
Yeah. If those had been live and rigged with a combination timer and barometric fuze, TSA would have had no role to play. Although, they might well have heard the noise.
Kabuki theatre.
They could give us a selection of locks to put on the barn door, post-equine exfiltration.
But without the non-stop action.
S ymbolic
A ction
If there was no explosives contained in the shells, what’s the big deal? They are just hunks of rusty iron in checked baggage. Inert means just that.
They should have said they were sex toys.
Disguised as salamis.
No fan of the TSA, but the blame lies with the British security at Heathrow, not the TSA.
This reminds me of the Muslim TSA searching a nun.
This reminds me of the Muslim TSA searching a nun.
Curiosity has me in its throes so I must ask.
How?
“Sleep well, TSA is on guard.”
Not at Heathrow.
They still find WW1 & WW2 ordnance all the time over in Europe.
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