Cargo bombs 'big enough to bring down planes' in a plane

BOMBS used in the cargo plane terror plot were many times more powerful than required to blow a hole in an aircraft fuselage, officials said last night as the Government confirmed it was halting flights of unaccompanied freight from Somalia and banning ink cartridges from hand luggage.

Experts in Germany said the bombs at East Midlands Airport and in Dubai contained at least 300g (10.6oz) of the powerful explosive PETN. Tests have shown only six grammes of PETN would be enough to punch a hole into a metal plate twice the thickness of an aircraft fuselage.

Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday announced a review of all air freight security in the wake of the bomb plot and told MPs flights containing unaccompanied freight from Somalia were also being suspended as a "precautionary measure" based on "possible contact between al-

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Qaida in Yemen and terrorist groups in Somalia, as well as concern about airport security in Mogadishu".

Toner cartridges larger than 500g (17.6oz) will also be banned from hand baggage on flights departing from the UK and also on cargo flights unless they originate from a regular shipper with security arrangements approved by the Department for Transport, she said.

"Had the device detonated we assess it could have succeeded in bringing down the aircraft," she added.

The Home Secretary confirmed both explosive devices originated in Yemen, believed to have been made and dispatched by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which was responsible for the foiled Christmas Day attack on an aircraft bound for Detroit last year.

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"The devices were probably intended to detonate mid-air and to destroy the cargo aircraft on which they were being transported," she said. "Our own analysis of the device here – analysis which has to proceed with great care to preserve the evidential value of the recovered material – established by Saturday morning that it was viable:

"This means not only that it contained explosive material but that it could have detonated."

Mrs May said there was no information to suggest that another similar attack was imminent but authorities were working "on the assumption that this organisation will wish to continue to find ways of also attacking targets further afield".

She added that Department for Transport officials were in technical discussions with the industry to discuss the next steps to devise a sustainable, proportionate, long-term security regime.