Dubai mail bomb sent on 2 planes

The airline spokesman said a package containing explosives hidden in a printer cartridge arrived in Qatar Airways' hub in Doha, Qatar on one of the carrier's flights from the Yemeni capital Sanaa. It was then shipped on a separate Qatar Airways plane to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where it was discovered by authorities late Thursday or early Friday. A second, similar package turned up in England on Friday.

The airline spokesman disclosed the information on condition of anonymity in line with the company's standing policies on conversations with the media. He did not give any timeframe for the two flights in question. The airline operates daily passenger flights from Yemen that could also carry courier packages.

The plot was the latest to expose persistent security gaps in international air travel and cargo shipping nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and showed terrorists appear to be probing those vulnerabilities.

In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday that authorities “have to presume” there might be more potential mail bombs like the ones pulled from planes in England and the United Arab Emirates.

The explosives, addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, were pulled off airplanes in England and the United Arab Emirates early Friday morning after intelligence officials were tipped off about them. That touched off a tense search for other devices.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he believes the explosive device found in central England was intended to detonate on the plane, while British Home Secretary Theresa May said the bomb was powerful enough to take down the aircraft. A U.S. official said the second device found in Dubai was thought to be similar in strength.

A U.S. official and a British security consultant said Sunday that the bomb that turned up in England nearly slipped past investigators even after they were tipped off. The near-miss shows it was sophisticated enough to escape notice.

After a six-hour sweep of cargo at the East Midlands airport in central England, Leicestershire police came up empty and removed the security perimeter they had set up, British aviation safety consultant Chris Yates said.

But when officials in Dubai said they had discovered a bomb disguised as a computer printer cartridge, authorities urged the British to look again, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

“As a direct consequence, they put the cordon back up again and looked again and found the explosives,” said Yates, relying on a report given to him by an eyewitness to the searches.

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