Terrorism: Fatal Deception

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A radio-cassette player: innocuous-looking, compact, popular with travelers. To a terrorist, the perfect place to conceal a bomb. British authorities concluded last week that the explosive device that blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December was hidden in a radio-cassette player. The Federal Aviation Administration immediately advised tighter checks on electronic goods at airports.

British investigators said reconstruction of a baggage container provided evidence that the radio-cassette player may have been put on board with luggage in Frankfurt. The evidence further pointed to a radical Syria-based group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Only two months before the Pan Am bombing, during a raid on suspected PFLP-GC terrorists, West German police found a Toshiba Boombeat portable radio that held 10.5 oz. of plastic explosives. An FAA report on the discovery noted that the device "would be very difficult to detect by normal X-ray inspection, indicating that it might be intended to pass undiscovered through areas subject to extensive security controls, such as airports."