Soldier carrying land mine kicked off flight

[DoNotRefill]

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A 24-year-old Army sergeant was removed from an American Airlines flight after an inert land mine was found in his checked baggage, the Transportation Safety Administration said.

TSA screeners noticed the land mine Friday, pulled the bag from the luggage system at Denver International Airport and confiscated the mine, TSA spokesman Mike Fierberg said. No flights were delayed.

The soldier, whose name was not released, could face civil penalties for trying to put a prohibited item aboard a flight, Fierberg said. No criminal charges would be filed, he said.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/01/10/airport.security.ap/index.html

I swear, we need to start a "stupid TSA trick" file.

An inert land mine. That means it's a piece of plastic filled with concrete, that is useful for training purposes, but has zero lethality. A can of shaving cream poses more danger. I can understand if he tried to take it on the plane as carry-on, but as checked baggage? Hell, it's legal to carry a real gun on a plane in checked baggage...

[slor]

1. How stupid is this guy.

Inert or not, I am already not fond of flying, I do NOT want to hear the words "mine" and "airplane" in the same sentence!

[DoNotRefill]

4. A can of WD-40 is much more dangerous than this thing was...

would you rather they use the term "inert training device"?

Would that make you feel safer?

[Gysgt213]

2. The can teach you how to march, shoot and fight but they can't

pound common sense in your head.

[DoNotRefill]

3. Hey Gunny...

these are non-regulated devices. The most danger they pose is the same as any other piece of plastic...if somebody burns them, they'll give off fumes as the plastic is consumed, but that's about it.

What's the problem with carrying obviously inert (blue) ordinance in checked baggage? I mean hellfire, if you can ship it via USPS or UPS or Fedex (which is all completely legal), where's the harm?

[wunnerfulrobin]

7. Article doesnt say its a training mine

It could be a mine with the fuse removed. It could be "inert" for many reasons. I doubt it was a plastic shell filled with concrete.
Probably should've never made the papers anyway.

[DoNotRefill]

11. "inert" means one of two things:

Either it was a training device, which looks and operates just like the real thing except that it's blue and that the parts that go "boom! were never there and it was instead filled with things like concrete to make the weight right, or it's "inert" because it's "demilled", which means that it was once a live piece of ordinance that was destroyed to government specs, and the things that would have made it go "boom" have been removed and the vessel has been cut so it can't be made to function.

A mine with the fuse removed is NOT NOT NOT NOT inert.

I'm curious. Have you ever played with stuff like this? I've seen a LOT of this kind of stuff, and EVERY time I've seen it, it was a training device, which is a blue plastic shell filled with concrete. I've NEVER heard of demilling and then selling as surplus a live mine, it's very dangerous for the gain, so it's not done.

It's like referring to the plastic M-16s we played with for maneuvers in ROTC as "machineguns". It's based on ignorance and stupidity

[Kinkistyle]

5. He could use it as a bludgeoning device

And hijack the plane with it. I've seen people get pulled aside and have their portable screwdriver/wrenchset confiscated, so nothing surprises me with thise jackoffs anymore :eyes:

[DoNotRefill]

6. this was in checked baggage...

not carry-on.

[dansolo]

8. He should have declared it

When the luggage is screened, how are they supposed to know that it was inert? They did the right thing, and I personally think that this idiot should end up in jail. If a person can be thrown in jail for merely mentioning the word "bomb" in an airport, then putting something that looks very much like an explosive device into their luggage should have the same result.

[DoNotRefill]

10. Ummm....

by the color?

These things are color-coded. Training devices are a kind of sick powdery-blue, live ordinance is green. This isn't paint, it's the color of the plastic itself, and it's obvious if the color has been changed just by touching it.

He stored and shipped it legally. That's why there were no criminal charges. The TSA just has their heads up their asses.

[buycitgo]

9. I got kicked off a United flight

for saying "jahwohl" to a male attendant