The Wall Street Journal reports on a troubling situation, whereby Russia has reportedly been plotting to take down a flight bound for North America, by starting a fire onboard.
Russia’s plan to place incendiary devices onto flights
Back in July 2024, incendiary devices ignited at two DHL cargo logistics hubs in Europe, while being shipped by air. Specifically, this happened in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, England. These came in the form of electric massagers implanted with magnesium-based flammable substance, which had been shipped from Lithuania.
Once magnesium ignites, it would be difficult to extinguish with the firefighting systems most planes have. This would require an immediate emergency landing, but as you’d expect, that’s not very practical over the Atlantic. If such a plot were successful, it could have catastrophic consequences, and could cause mass casualties.
Over the past several months, security officials from several countries have been trying to determine who is behind this, given that these devices narrowly avoided catching fire onboard aircraft. They now have an answer — they believe that this is part of a covert Russian scheme to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the United States and Canada, as part of a sabotage campaign against the United States and its allies.
The July incident is believed to have been a test run to determine the transfer channel for such parcels, to figure out how to get these devices onto flights bound for North America, and how to execute this on a larger scale.
Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office has announced that four people have been arrested in connection to the scheme, and have been charged with sabotage or terrorist operations on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency. It’s believed that they were working for Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU.
Not surprisingly, a Kremlin spokesperson denies the allegations — “we have never heard any official accusations,” and “these are traditional unsubstantiated insinuations from the media.”
This is obviously a terrifying prospect
Over the years, we’ve seen terrorists use the aviation industry to wreak havoc, and that goes way beyond 9/11 (more recently, take a look at the downing of MH17, which is also believed to involve Russia). It’s of course good news that this plot was uncovered on the ground, rather than in the air.
With some people having been arrested, hopefully it also means that this type of a plan won’t be used again. Then again, the question comes down to how easily these kinds of devices can be screened for by security officials. If they’re actually very hard to screen for, then this could pose a real threat. I don’t even think about what could happen.
I think it’s important to acknowledge that at least from the perspective of the United States, the airline and travel industry hasn’t really been dealing with much in the way of terror concerns in the past decade, and that’s good, because the industry has had enough challenges.
Major concerns over terrorism — whether we’re talking about terrorism involving flying, or just involving major landmarks at travel destinations — has the ability to greatly impact demand. The airline industry is a tough enough business during the best of times, and anything like this would be absolutely devastating.
Bottom line
In July 2024, two incendiary devices caught fire at DHL cargo facilities in Europe. It has now been determined by investigators that Russia was behind the plot, and that this was a test run to hopefully have these catch fire on a transatlantic flight bound for North America. Hopefully the fact that this plot has been uncovered means that we won’t see this tried again, because it’s the last thing the industry (or the world at large) needs.
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