Suspected Bomb Leads to Quick Reaction from TSA

News & Happenings

July 23, 2008

When National Transportation Safety Board investigators recently responded to an incident involving a cargo plane that suddenly caught on fire in San Francisco, TSA’s Explosives Operations Division was called.

With some explosives security specialists on the West Coast arriving in a few hours, their quick response demonstrated TSA’s versatility to deploy and thwart a possible threat. The fire turned out to be accidental, not a bomb or incendiary attack.

“Providing an expert, rapidly deployable, national level resource in all aspects of transportation explosives security is what we’re all about,” said Dave Resing, deputy chief of the Explosives Operations Division. “Had there been a nexus to terrorism, our assistance would have significantly increased the ability of investigators to make quick arrests.”

Explosives security specialists are former explosive ordnance disposal and public safety bomb technicians trained in explosives security across all transportation modes, post-blast investigations and explosives vulnerability assessment and mitigation planning.