FBI charges a man carrying explosives in luggage at the US airport
FBI agents have charged a man who allegedly carried an explosive device to a US airport on Monday.
Mark Muffley, 40, is blamed for putting the device in his checked suitcase for a flight to Orlando, Florida.
Agents say he escaped the airport after his name was called over the loudspeaker and was arrested at home later that night.
Man seen with explosives arrested at a US airport:
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials say they saw the device during a regular screening.
On Monday morning, officials state Mr Muffley checked in for Allegiant Air Flight 201 at Lehigh Valley International Airport, 65 miles (105km) north of Philadelphia.
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About an hour after, TSA screeners found the suspect item and asked FBI specialists, including a bomb technician, to check the device.
In charging papers, FBI bomb technician Jared Witmier told a 3-inch (7.5cm) device hidden in the lining of the man’s rolling bag was found to have fuses and explosive powder.
There was a quick fuse, which seemed to be a part of the original manufacture of the compound, and a hobby fuse, which appeared to have been counted post-manufacture, according to the criminal complaint.
The “powder is suspected to be a combination of flash powder and the dark granules that are used in commercial grade fireworks”, the FBI court document reads.
