Posted on 10/17/2003 2:21:21 PM PDT by tomball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All commercial aircraft will be searched by U.S. security personnel within the next 24 hours after the discovery of box cutters, bleach and other items aboard two Southwest Airlines Inc. planes, federal law enforcement officials said on Friday. They said the FBI, working with the Department of Homeland Security, is investigating the discovery of the box cutters, bleach and other items found late on Thursday in plastic bags on the planes that landed in Houston and New Orleans. Box cutters were used as a weapon by the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. The search of all aircraft was directed by the Department of Homeland Security and its Transportation Security Administration, the officials said. In Dallas, Southwest said the items were discovered in a lavatory compartment while maintenance was being performed on an aircraft lavatory in New Orleans on Thursday evening. Inside a small plastic bag were a small number of box cutters and other items, it said. A similar discovery was made in Houston Thursday night on another aircraft during a scheduled maintenance inspection, the airline said. A note in both packages indicated the items were intended to challenge the TSA checkpoint security procedures, Southwest said. It immediately turned over the items to authorities. Southwest said it completed inspections of its entire fleet of 385 aircraft and found no additional items. "We continue to cooperate with the TSA and FBI to determine the origin of these items," it said in a statement. "We will not speculate on who might have left these items onboard." The law enforcement officials said the investigation is being led by the joint terrorism task forces in Houston and New Orleans. They said it was a coincidence that FBI Director Robert Mueller was in Houston on Friday for a visit to the local FBI field office. Mueller regularly makes such visits. Box cutters and bleach are items prohibited from being brought on planes.
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