Bomb explodes in T.W.A. plane

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 1

Bomb explodes in T.W.A. plane

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright)

LAS VEGAS (Nevada), March 8.

A bomb blew up today in the cockpit of an unoccupied T.W.A. 747 at Las Vegas Airport.

The explosion came several hours after an extortionist warned that several T.W.A. planes had bombs aboard. There were no injuries.

Authorities said the blast occurred shortly before 7 a.m. The plane was parked in an isolated area of the airport. No-one was aboard the craft.

A spokesman for the Clark County Sheriff’s Department said that officials believed the blast resulted from a bomb.

Earlier, a T.W.A. spokesman in New York said no other bombs had been found on any of its 250 jets.

The statement came before the Las Vegas blast occurred. The extortionist had said that three devices had been placed on company jetliners in addition to the live bomb sniffed out by a trained dog at Kennedy Airport in New York. Baggage search Trans World Airlines began searching the baggage of all its passengers today as it tensely faced the threat of three bombings unless it pays a s2m ransom.

Unconfirmed but persistent reports at John F. Kennedy Airport said that the airline was assembling the ransom money demanded by the unknown extortionist believed responsible for planting plastic explosives in the codepit of a T.W.A. 707 jetliner yesterday. The plane was airborne for 15 minutes when it was ordered back to be searched.

The plastic device was found in a black suitcase in the cockpit and was defused with just 12 minutes to spare before its scheduled detonation.

A threatening letter, found in an airport storage locker after an anonymous telephone call, said that bombs would go off aboard two planes every six hours unless airline officials placed slm in each of two bags that had also been placed in the locker.

The times for the first two bombs passed without any explosions. T.W.A. refused to caneel any of its flights, but sharply stepped up security and warned that some flights might be delayed because of the searches.

Airport security in Europe, generally stricter than it is in the United States, is also being increased for T.W.A flights.

Alsatian dogs

T.W.A. spokesmen have refused to comment on latest developments, particularly on reports that the ransom was being assembled. Two Alsatian dogs, Brandy and Sally, sniffed out the plastic bomb in a black leather satchel in the jet that was scheduled to take 45 passengers to Los Angeles. The device was taken to a garage in a remote part of the sprawling international airport where a New York City Police Department bomb squad defused it just 12 minutes before it was scheduled to go off. Experts described the device as being of a "military type,” and said it was live.

Later Detective William Schmitt, the New York Police Department’s bombsection expert who defused the device, said it had consisted of 51b or 61b of C 4 that “would have blown the plane apart.” C 4 would ordinarily not be detected by the magnetometers the airline industry has been using to guard against sabotage and hijackings. But any metallic parts used for the timing mechanism presumably could have been picked up by a magnetometer.

About five hours later, the airport tower alerted police that a tip had been received of a bomb on another T.W.A. flight that was arriving from Denver. The plane had been searched before its departure,

i but as soon as it landed, 5 police, accompanied by 1 Brandy and Sally, rushed . aboard. i No bomb was found aboard i the Denver flight, or on four , flights arriving subsequently.

The big mystery bothering industry officials today was how a bomb had been smuggled right into the cockpit of the plane. The plane had arrived shortly after the previous midnight on a flight from Los Angeles. The presumption was that the criminal involved must have been well acquainted with the airport, and with airline maintenance and boarding procedures. Captain William Motz and his crew had little reason to notice the deadly package in the cockpit