back to article Boffins' audacious plan to blow up aircraft foiled by bomb-proof bag

Forsaken planes have been used in a series of boffinry experiments this week to test whether a bag lined with bomb-proof material could withstand an explosive blast. A group of international scientists and academics from the University of Sheffield – backed by the European Commission and run by a consortium of businesses and …

  1. Charles 9
    Meh

    Blast containment in general, bully. Having better control over explosives is generally a Good Thing.

    Now, the other aspects of what's being described in the article? Mixed feelings.

    The testing sound like it has potential, but I still get the feeling it could still stand a few scenario tests. Just how was the Fly Bag tested? Under what conditions? It will help to see if more parameters need to be considered like perhaps a positive-pressure hold (to better simulate an in-to-out pressure differential that would occur while in-flight).

    And the consortium wanting the bags to be mandatory? Hold your horses. Let's make sure we get this right first.

    Meanwhile, this'll do diddly for the current preferred bomb technique: carry-on or wear-on explosives. Who's betting the next plane is bombed out of the sky courtesy of a kinky woman who pulls out a dildo bomb while in the toilet?

    1. adnim

      My feelings are mixed too... I prefer my intestines

      not to be mixed, especially with the local environment.....

      Testing should have been done at 29,000 feet with the cargo hold pressurised to the equivalence of atmospheric pressure at 5,000ft. Preferably with a full passenger compliment of marketing executives, patent trolls and lawyers, just in case the calculations were a little off.

      1. Heironymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: My feelings are mixed too... I prefer my intestines

        May I respectfully suggest a double-blind test with a control group? I wouldn't be adverse to tossing a few rich budding politicians into the mix too..

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      There's also a report on the BBC website, which was quite interesting in demonstrating "with" and "without" bag scenarios.

      Love the massive zips on it :).

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Who's betting the next plane is bombed out of the sky courtesy of a kinky woman who pulls out a dildo bomb while in the toilet?

      Well, mark me down as scared, sickened, intrigued AND horny!

      By the way, can you imagine the group meeting where the Senior Terrorist says to the Woman Terrorist, "We need you to hide this bomb. No, not there. Not there either. Guess again but you're getting warmer..."

  2. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Fake Fly Bags

    If Fly Bags become compulsory there will be a big market in fake products, meaning that the production and supply of the genuine article needs to be strictly monitored.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fake Fly Bags

      If Fly Bags become compulsory there will be a big market in fake products, meaning that the production and supply of the genuine article needs to be strictly monitored.

      Not a problem: make it mandatory that the board of the supplier is on an annual test flight, no substitutes allowed. No better driver for quality than enlightened self interest.

  3. Nolveys
    Boffin

    Not mentioned in the article...

    When used the bag expands to occupy approximately 300 cubic meters. Passengers wearing seat belts will find themselves pinned to their seats while unbuckled passengers will usually find themselves sharing the window seat with several other people. The bag takes about 17 hours to deflate and makes a sound like a very loud whoopee cushion.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Not mentioned in the article...

      Ah.. the reality... this will not sit well with the "thinking of the children" and "my god, we need to do something about terrorism" crowd who will suddenly start screaming in the media and thus "guide" the appropriate legislative types. The gas cloud that remains after the "boom". It has to go somewhere...

      I'm wondering if these tech will be turned into clothing to handed out to all passengers to contain the results of exploding underwear?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Not mentioned in the article...

        Number of US planes blown up by bombs in last 20years?

        Number of US airports which still don't have weather or windshear radar

        Number of staff cut by the reduction of ATC to a few major centers leaving most of the US with no coverage.

        Number of column inches generated by each threat ....

    2. Graham Marsden

      Re: Not mentioned in the article...

      The 300 cubic metres is for the cargo hold version. There are smaller versions for bombs in the passenger cabin.

  4. Tony W

    And braces

    Maybe the aircraft's own lithium batteries could be put inside one of these bags?

    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: And braces

      And perhaps, the O2 tanks as well?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: And braces

        Airplanes do not carry tanks of oxygen - that would be dangerous.

        They have canisters containing a mixture of chemical explosives which generate oxygen, along with a lot of heat, when you trigger them.

        1. Vic

          Re: And braces

          Airplanes do not carry tanks of oxygen

          Yes they do.

          They have canisters containing a mixture of chemical explosives which generate oxygen

          That's for the passengers. The pilots have one or more cylinders of compressed oxygen, depending on aircraft design.

          Vic.

  5. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Just solve the problem by getting people to fly naked (or perhaps morph suits at a push). Have the luggage travel behind in a cargo plane shared by the airlines. Nothing dangerous in the cabin then unless there's someone willing and with a cavernous cavity they're happy to use. Airlines also get to squash more people on to one plane. Win win.

    Warning,someone somewhere with the means and influence, might just make this happen. I say buy shares in sick bag manufacturers now.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Devil

      Only so long as the airlines promise not to pack us so tight that just sneezing causes one to join the mile high club...

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "Have the luggage travel behind in a cargo plane shared by the airlines. "

      Was I the only one to get a mental image of a jumbo jet towing a WWII style glider behind it before reaching the end of that sentence?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        >a jumbo jet towing a WWII style glider behind it

        Cue Ryanair's next announcement, "caravan class"

        1. Martin Summers Silver badge

          "Cue Ryanair's next announcement, "caravan class" "

          I'm probably going to do time in the mod queue for this but there is a picture created many moons ago "Air Pikey" depicting pretty much that. Sure it's there if you google it.

    3. Kharkov
      Stop

      An Unfortunate Reality - People are UGLY!

      Just solve the problem by getting people to fly naked...

      This works for about 5% of the population (male AND female) but the rest of us? If exposed to the naked bodies of 95% of humanity (think bulges, bags, unsightly hair etc), it'd take less than a month before people were crying out to get clothes back on airplanes, even if it meant doubling the risk of mid-flight oopsies.

      And yes, the thought of WWII gliders came to me too... At least they'd have a plausible reason for the delay getting your bags back.

    4. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      "Nothing dangerous in the cabin then unless there's someone willing and with a cavernous cavity they're happy to use."

      Well, in Saudi, there was an AQ terrorist who agreed to meet with the counter-terrorism minister. He had a cellular phone detonator attached to a bomb inserted into his rectum, which he detonated. This injured the Saudi minister and left the world with one less asshole.

      Pun intended.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wouldn't solve the earlier-cited scenario of the dildo bomber, who would have the bomb INSIDE during the flight and only pull it out just before zero time.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        "Wouldn't solve the earlier-cited scenario of the dildo bomber, who would have the bomb INSIDE during the flight and only pull it out just before zero time."

        Oh but there would be probing, you mustn't forget the probing after the de-robing. It's almost inevitable if they got you that far.

  6. BenR

    Dr. Andy Tyas

    No comment on the article, but this is where I went to university, and Andy Tyas was one of my lecturers during my time there.

    Really, really, genuinely top bloke. Very knowledgeable, very helpful. He didn't have his Doctorate while I was there though, so congratulations to him on that!

  7. Cynic_999

    Great but ... what problem will this solve?

    Outside of a couple of Hollywood movies, I have not heard of a situation in which it has been discovered that there is an unexploded bomb in a known and accessible place on an aircraft that is in flight. I should think that the probability of that occurring is pretty remote. People making bomb threats tend not to divulge the location of the bomb, and it would hardly be sensible to search through all the bags in the hold (apart from being impractical on a large aircraft, opening a bag to look for a bomb could well set it off).

    I suppose it could be ruled that *all* luggage must be transported inside such bags (which I suspect is what the bag manufacturer would like) - but then it would surely be more effective to line each luggage bin with the material rather than putting every suitcase in a bag (most airliners carry luggage in several discrete aluminium bins rather than loose in the hold).

    But of course if that were done the bombers would simply change tactic.

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