Manchester airport evacuated after suspicious package tests ‘positive for device’

Scarce details as yet,
But it seems Manchester airport has been evacuated, and traffic stopped going into the airport.

the package at Terminal 2 has been tested positive twice.

www.rt.com...

Nothing on BBC news. Weird

a reply to: smurfy

Live updates can also be found in this link: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk...

If it's an ETD hit, then plenty of products will show positive that aren't explosives.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
If it's an ETD hit, then plenty of products will show positive that aren't explosives.

Yep. My wife's shampoo tested positive once. That was fun.

Hopefully a false alarm... I can't see where is says the bag has tested positive. Actually I don;t even know what that statement means? Positive for what?

double

a reply to: 3danimator2014

We used to have a huge list of products. It drove us nuts.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It wouldn't be the first false positive! Thanks for bringing this up

www.csicop.org...

originally posted by: UKTruth
Hopefully a false alarm... I can't see where is says the bag has tested positive. Actually I don;t even know what that statement means? Positive for what?

Positive for certain chemicals that are present in common explosives. Trouble is there are lots of false positives.

a reply to: FamCore

There's a new version of the Ion Track ETD that cuts the positive rate down to where if it alarms, it's almost certainly a device, but when I got out of the airport in 2006 they hadn't sold many of them. The airlines are godawful slow to change to new technology.

a reply to: UKTruth

Probably explosives - apparently body lotions and a number of random regular substances can show up as "positives"

a reply to: UKTruth

Products like cosmetics use chemicals that are very similar to those used in explosives when run through a trace detector. Another example is someone that normally handles explosives. They're going to have traces on their bags that are going to cause the bag to alarm when sampled by the machine. Both are positives, without being actual explosives, but have to be checked carefully.

I doubt we will ever find out if this is a real situation or false alarm.
We can just be glad that if is was real that it was identified before it went off.

a reply to: UKTruth

Nitroglycerin which is used in medicine could also result in false positives (also used in explosives)

a reply to: FamCore

That was the one positive that we were allowed to clear without calling the FAA and LEOs to talk to the passenger. They had to have proof of a prescription, and their pills.

A checkpoint at an airport that shall remain nameless, had a nitro hit. They asked the guy if he knew why he'd have a positive on the ETD. He thinks about it for a second, and goes "Oh, it was probably this." Reaches into his bag and pulls out a bottle of nitroglycerin. The supervisor reaches out and touches it, and yanked her hand back because it was hot.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
If it's an ETD hit, then plenty of products will show positive that aren't explosives.

Just a bit more on the location,

"The item is believed to be a bag that was left for a long time in the drop-off area outside the airport.

The terminal has been duly evacuated and cordoned off as a precaution."

"Airport officials are asking people to leave the area and keep away from windows and glass constructions."

I'm guessing that the precautions are because of the length of time, as well as the tests. I don't know how they concluded 'a long time' though, unless it had originated on a flight in.

Thank you Zaphod and Famcore - some good information here. I know nothing about explosives and the detection of such, so interesting to hear about the potential for false positives.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: UKTruth

Nitroglycerin which is used in medicine could also result in false positives (also used in explosives)

Doesn't the ion scan look for nitrates or something very genera?

Speaking of nitroglycerin, I used to have lots of fun with that when I went through my pyro phase as a young chemist. This was back in the days when you could buy KNO3 (potassium nitrate, used in gunpowder) in Boots (big chemist chain in the UK) and your local friendly pharmacist thought nothing of ordering nitric acid for a 16 year old kid...I miss those simpler, more innocent days.

a reply to: smurfy

One must be careful about a proven "device." Those damned things are all over.