PETN: The powder at the center of airline terror alert

Thank you CNN for providing information on PETN.

Petn is easy to get and readily available in ten's of thousands of locations around the world. Petn is commonly used as filler in DetCord, also refered to as PrimaCord which is routinely used by road construction firms and open pit mining operations around the world to use as a high bursting detonator for ammonium nitrate fuel oil based charges buried in the proposed mining ledge or road bed.

Any bomb sniffing dog trained to target Nitrate based explosives (99% are Nitrogen based) would find it. All bomb testing swab systems commonly found at American airports would also find it.

Like many nitro based stable fillers, it commonly takes mercury fulminate commonly known as a blasting cap to set Petn off. Simply burning Petn with a match normally results in some rather toxic fumes and fireworks without an explosion. Even the typical minimum wage paid Airport screener would immediately spot a blasting cap if that was scanned.

If you want to see Petn in action, watch film of operations in Afghanistan using 100 yards of PrimaCord shot out in front of the vehicles and then exploded to detonate any and all mines in that area.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Petn being used by these bombers, came from stolen PrimaCord found in US trucks along the Pakistan border which were supplying the troops in Afghanistan?

A. Smith, Oregon
So you think the probability of obtaining this PETN came from stolen PrimaCord found in US trucks along the Pakistan border! Now that is what I call sad. It certainly would not be the first time and I am sure, not the last! Could one use a firecracker or cherry bomb to set it off. The Cherry bomb has quite a punch and common in many countries around the world. Yikes, Petn is very explosive. Youtube has many Petn explosions now.