Man arrested with training grenades

[Tab]

Source: Unknown

YAKIMA, Wash. - A 20-year-old member of the military was arrested after trying to get through airport security with two training grenades in a carry-on bag, police said.

Transportation Security Administration agents spotted the grenades using a belt scanner at Yakima Air Terminal around 11:15 a.m. Sunday, Police Sgt. Tim Bardwell said.

The grenades contained live fuses but had no explosives packed around them, Bardwell told the Yakima Herald-Republic. The man was released Sunday afternoon while prosecutors and the FBI look into the incident.

Police locked down the small airport for a few minutes, then evacuated about 30 or 35 people while explosive experts from the Army's Yakima Training Center dismantled the grenades. All scheduled incoming flights stayed on the ground at other airports.

Authorities said the man lives on a military base in California, but Bardwell would not disclose his name, his branch of service or details about his questioning.

Police temporarily allowed the only incoming flight that was already in the air to land. Passengers were offloaded at the police precinct, a few hundred yards away from the terminal, Bardwell said.

Normal operations resumed around 12:45 p.m.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080218/ap_on_re_us/grenades_airport_arrest

---

What kind of idiot takes grenades, live or not, through a frickin' airport in this day and age?

[Recursion]

1. Best case: he forgot they were in his bag

Worst case: he was going to try to hijack a flight

Medium case: he is a frigging moron who thought it would be funny

[Javaman]

2. Or...

someone put them in his bag without his knowledge, knowing that they would be found and the airport would be shut down as a result.

[Squatch]

4. Hijack a flight with BLUE grenades?

Blue=training munition

[Recursion]

5. I know that and you know that

I don't know if the average passenger could tell the difference.

[unc70]

3. I remember some of those at my high school

I grew up near a military base. I remember all sorts of stuff at my school when I was in junior and senior high school. I specifically remember training grenades, a box of bayonets, cannisters of training film, canteens, rations, and things like that. This was back in the late 50's and early 60's when every boy carried a knife to school, might play games of skill with it, but would have never considered using it in a fight.

There were training exercises all around us all the time, the woods were littered with all sorts of left-behind items, some classmates became "scouts" or "informants" during war games, windows rattled in my house from howitzers. As Vietnam ramped up, all this activity increased dramatically. Like most teenagers of the time, we could identify car brands at a distance based on shape or sound. We could also do the same for planes, helicopters, artillery, and machine guns. Ah! The good old days.

[rocktivity]

6. I wonder what the grenades

were training the man to do.

:shrug:
rocknation

[Winterblues]

7. Could be a test

They seem to be testing Security a lot these days..

[truthisfreedom]

8. Hmm. I think "Oops, I forgot I had those grenades with me" probably wouldn't fly at an airport.

Whatever the reason he had them with him, no doubt he's kicking himself right now.

[ngant17]

9. concussion grenades?

If what they mean by "training grenades", I assume it could be concussion grenades, which are essentially very large 'M-80' type firecrackers. No metal fragments, but you definitely don't want to be near them when they go off. Possible to rupture an eardrum, or take off a finger if you are holding them when they go off. Wouldn't think it could penetrate aircraft sheet metal but possibly it could shatter a window on a plane.