abc.net
Package with wires and fuse found on flight

Jennifer Macey reported this story on Friday, November 19, 2010 12:26:00
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ELIZABETH JACKSON: A suspicious parcel containing a detonator, batteries and a ticking clock has been seized from a suitcase bound for the German city of Munich.

Police say the bag was detected before it could be loaded onto an Air Berlin flight from Windhoek in Namibia.

Germany has been on a high alert since Wednesday when authorities issued a warning. Security was boosted at airports and border controls were tightened.

Jennifer Macey reports.

JENNIFER MACEY: Passengers flying from Windhoek in Namibia to the German city of Munich were annoyed when their plane was delayed for hours. But they would have been more shocked to know that what was holding them up was the discovery of a timing device and a fuse inside a laptop bag wrapped in plastic.

VOX POP 1 (translated): We were due to leave Windhoek at nine o'clock. The security staff found a piece of luggage that could not be identified. So we all had to get off the plane again.

VOX POP 2 (translated): The plane returned to its parking position and was completely emptied. Almost 300 of us had to identify our luggage. And then began a seven hour long procedure of more controls, sniffer dogs, questioning and waiting, waiting, waiting.

JENNIFER MACEY: A routine x-ray scan at Windhoek airport picked up the suspicious device before it was loaded onto the Air Berlin flight.

The discovery was confirmed by the Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann.

JOACHIM HERRMANN (translated): A case was recognised as not having been examined thoroughly and in which batteries, cables and similar things were found. It's still being investigated to see if this was actually made as a bomb.

JENNIFER MACEY: The carrier Air Berlin says no explosives were found in the bag but its discovery has triggered a security alert 8,000 kilometres away in Germany.

Heavily armed police have increased in number and visibility at all German airports and tanks are patrolling some runways.

The federal interior minister Thomas de Maiziere raised the alarm on Wednesday.

He told the German television ZDF that level of the threat was similar to the terrorist bombings in Mumbai.

THOMAS DE MAIZIERE (translated): What we are basically preparing ourselves for is that terrorists coming from abroad commit an attack soon after arrival, without warning, in a building or public place knowing that they may not survive.

In shop talk we'd call that something similar to what happened in Mumbai.

JENNIFER MACEY: But minister de Maiziere could not confirm whether the terror threat is related to the suspicious parcel found in Namibia.

He's been meeting with his 16 state counterparts in Berlin.

Karl Peter Bruch the interior minister of Rhineland Palatinate in Germany's south-west says major cities such as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and the industrial area near Essen are particularly at risk.

But he says there are also reports that the suspicious package may be a false alarm.

KARL PETER BRUCH (translated): There is new information suggesting that we don't know whether it was actually a bomb or a fake designed to establish whether the security controls were strict enough. This new development is being discussed at the moment.

JENNIFER MACEY: Peter Neumann is a German terrorism expert from King's College London and is currently in Washington. He explains why Germany might be seen as a soft target in Europe.

PETER NEUMANN: For a number of years the calculation of insurgents of jihadists, Al Qaeda has been that Germany is the weak link in the coalition in Afghanistan.

The public is overwhelmingly against the German engagement in Afghanistan. And like Madrid in 2004 if you manage to launch a devastating terrorist attack in Germany you could probably put a lot of pressure on the government to withdraw their troops.

JENNIFER MACEY: The terror warning and the stepped up security measures are causing some disquiet among the population particularly among those planning on travelling during the Christmas holiday period.

VOX POP 3 (translated): Frightening. We are flying and there is a terror warning. I find that absolutely frightening.

VOX POP 4 (translated): The knot in my stomach is there and it's been there since Wednesday when they made the terror alert.

JENNIFER MACEY: Yet the German government is calling for calm saying the public should continue to go about their lives as normal.

The interior minister Thomas de Maiziere says he won't allow international terrorists to spread fear in Germany.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Jennifer Macey.
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