Live dynamite discovered at LAX airport
A live stick of dynamite used in a training exercise at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was left on an old plane for four days, according to sources.
Law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that workers on the tarmac
found the dynamite on Tuesday inside the “Spirit of Seventy
Six”—a historic plane part of the Flight Path Learning Center and
Museum on airport property.
Law enforcement officials had been using the plane over the
weekend to do drills with specially trained canines and had left
the stick behind, according to the AP.
The stick had been checked out of an explosive storage container
that the Transportation Security Administration maintains at LAX
for training purposes, the newswire reported this week, and
contained “a certain amount of TNT,” according to LAX
spokesperson Sgt. Belinda Joseph. The spokesperson insisted the
stick wasn’t actually dynamite, and AP reported the alleged
explosive was live but would have required a detonator to be set
off.
Sergeant Joseph said LAX police are investigating the incident
and have alerted the TSA.
The Flight Path Learning Center and Museum is located in the
southern edge of the airport, and the “Spirit of Seventy-Six” — a
former TWA commercial craft manufactured in 1941 — sits on the
tarmac outside for easy visitor access. The plane was sold to
Union Oil in 1956, according to aviation blogger Sandi Hemmerlein, and was
brought to LAX 50 years later.
