Police lose explosives during airport exercise

Police training sniffer dogs at Paris’ top airport lost track of a passenger’s bag in which plastic explosives had been placed, a police official said today.

The luggage could have made it on to a flight, but there was virtually no risk of detonation, he said.

Police at Charles de Gaulle airport deliberately placed the bag containing 100 to 150 grams of plastic explosives into a passenger’s luggage early on Friday evening, police spokesman Pierre Bouquin said.

But a “momentary lack of surveillance” led to the bag being lost on an internal conveyor belt carrying luggage from check-in to planes, he said.

Police did not know the bag’s destination.

Authorities immediately alerted the relevant airlines that one of between 80 and 90 planes that left the French capital from 5.30pm to 7pm Friday (1630-1800 Irish time) could be carrying the explosives, Bouquin said.

He insisted the plastic explosives were harmless because detonators would be required to set them off.

Four of the flights were en route to the United States, while others were headed to places like Japan and Brazil, Bouquin said. Some were domestic French flights.

The 362 passengers on Air France flight 70 to Los Angeles were evacuated and inspected, but the explosives were not found, a spokesman for the French carrier said. The flight was delayed two to three hours before continuing on its next leg to Tahiti in the South Pacific.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said several planes were also searched in New York City.

“These dogs must be trained in the most realistic situation possible … to be the most effective,” Bouquin said.

“Indeed, it’s possible that someone will have a surprise when he opens his bag,” he said.