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A comment on Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah.

Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by throw32i3ii on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @08:28AM (#41858299)
Key components are 6 grams of white pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and "highly flammable material" as a detonator. PETN was developed in 1906, and is accessible to more advanced hobby chemists.

So we have explosive device that passes through airport security scanner. And can be made at home by dedicated individuals... What are the implications for air travel?

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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by owenmarshall on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @08:32AM (#41858332)
Airlines are already banning pagers and walkie talkies.

I wonder how many duds are currently being processed by Hezbollah right now.

(0): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/world/middleeast/emirates...

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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @03:43PM (#41863056)
> Airlines are already banning pagers and walkie talkies

The threat vector OP refers to is a terrorist packaging this into e.g. a laptop.

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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by gizmondo on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @08:50AM (#41858481)
The trick is probably not to make PETN, but to package it in such a way there are no traces of it outside?

There are likely no implications for air travel. At least I always assumed that advanced state actors can make explosives that are undetectable by airport security scanners.

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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @03:43PM (#41863052)
> we have explosive device that passes through airport security scanner

I don't think it passes through modern American scanners--they can theoretically discriminate plastic explosives (and presumably detonators) from water, though whether it gets caught is a matter of TSA competence.

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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by digdugdirk on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @08:42PM (#41865328)
The explosive is completely sealed inside the battery casing. It's highly likely to be undetectable.

Part of the reason why this is one of those "cat out of the bag" type things.

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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by shell_game on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @04:14PM (#41863362)
Nitrated explosives are detectable by airport security scanners. Dogs also pick up the scent of nitrates in seconds.
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Re:Israel's bulky pager fooled Hezbollah by ls_waiting on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @04:44PM (#41863674)
I mean, the implication is that they either tested the pagers on an airport's security scanner (pointing to state built explosive devices making their way onto consumer flights).

Or they tested them on their airport security scanners (and the question of why this group needs an airport security scanner to test things on).

Either way, the implications for air travel are not all that great!

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