[Gunner]

Impressive, yes, but a good Black Cat firecracker would have done as much damage. We used to blow up stuff all the time - and that's with only slightly more black powder than the amount of material shown in this example.

No question, some very powerful explosives can be formulated from readily available ingredients. No question, binaries are pretty scary - but you have to note that is not technically a binary explosive. A binary is something that is field-mixed or field-fabricated just before detonation. This example is just an explosive made from two ingredients and required significant time and effort to prep for use. I doubt both chemicals would clear most airport scanning if sniffers are in use. Even the simplest binaries tend to use one very active, detectable component, no matter if the other component is dirt or flour.

Does airport security, with all its warts and faults, keep most explosives and such off aircraft? Evidently so. Is it possible to keep exploding shoes, underwear and pens off of planes? Probably not - certainly not 100%.

Are the odds of some fanatical convert (note they are nearly always converts!) getting an exploding swizzle stick on a plane enough to stop flying? Not IMHO. Because if we let the minisicule odds of these f*ckheads actually accomplishing their pathetic mission make us avoid the millions of unaffected flights, the c*cks*ckers win! And so far, win without actually firing a shot!