Terror scares hit Australia

By GREG ANSLEY


SYDNEY - Australia's frayed nerves were given another jolt yesterday by the discovery of a home-made firebomb on a Virgin Blue airliner and the unrelated arrest of a man accused of threatening terror attacks in Southeast Asia.

The incidents followed this month's bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and heightened fears of terrorism that have become a major element of the campaign for the October 9 general election.

The Virgin bomb - made of thermite, an explosive compound used in military incendiary grenades - was slipped aboard the aircraft despite intensive security measures introduced after the September 2001 terror bombings in the United States.

Its discovery at Sydney on Monday after a flight from Maroochydore, north of Brisbane, has further raised concerns over the level of security at Australia's regional airports.

Transport Minister John Anderson ordered an immediate investigation by the Office of Transport Security, and the Australian Federal Police started a criminal inquiry.

The level of training of Virgin ground staff has also been criticised after one of the baggage handlers who discovered the device carried it into the crowded Sydney terminal for inspection by security staff.

"They wouldn't know what a bomb, or a typical home-made bomb or a professional bomb, looks like, and they're not aware of it," said Transport Workers Union airport organiser Glenn Nightingale.

Federal authorities and Virgin Blue believe the bomb was a hoax, possibly slipped into the aircraft by a disgruntled worker. They say it could not have been set off in flight.

The device was made of thermite packed into a cardboard toilet roll with a firework sparkler as a fuse, and wrapped in a knotted plastic bag.


It was found during the unloading of the Virgin flight at Sydney airport and was taken inside the terminal by a baggage handler who "thought he was doing the right thing", the airline's head of commercial operations, David Huttner, said. Security staff rushed the bomb into a car park.

It is not known whether it was placed at Maroochydore or on an earlier outgoing flight from Sydney.

Mr Anderson said the bomb was believed to have been a hoax, and was not something that could have blown an aircraft out of the air.

If it had been a "seriously nasty" device, it would have been detected by security arrangements.

"At the very least you would have to say this is not an action by a terrorist," he told a Sydney radio station. "It was plainly designed to look like a bomb, so someone or some group of people have done a very inappropriate, a very stupid thing."

More than 250 bombings, attempted bombings and hoaxes were reported to the Australian Bomb Data Centre in 2002-03.

More than three-quarters were directed against private homes and cars, and most were acts of vandalism, pranks or experiments.

But the Virgin device has been cast in a more sinister light because of the fears of terrorism.

In an unrelated incident, federal police were yesterday questioning a man accused of making threats against Australian interests in Singapore and Malaysia after the Jakarta embassy bomb.


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