All wet?

Starting today, the Transportation Security Administration is allowing airline passengers to bring some gels and liquids on planes.  The heightened security measures have been a result of last month’s uncovered plot to bring down US-bound commercial airliners.  I have been curious (thanks to Jack Bauer) as to the feasibility of binary gel/liquid explosives  The only feasibility analysis I have found is from the Register, a British technology news organization.

Its conclusions are quite surprising considering TSA’s extensive measures.  The chemical said to have been used in the plot is triacetone triperoxide (TATP).  Terrorists are unlikely to openly transport TATP onto a plane for fear of prematurely blowing themselves up with this “notoriously sensitive and unstable” chemical nicknamed the “the mother of Satan.”  However, transporting the precursors (the purported plan) and manufacturing TATP on a plane is “not quite as simple as ducking into the toilet and mixing two harmless liquids together.”

The Register explains the dangerous act of concentrating the off-the-shelf hydrogen peroxide, one of the three ingredients of TATP, and the difficulty of transporting the ingredients of destruction:

It's all right to mix the peroxide and acetone in one container, so long as it remains cool. Don't forget to bring several frozen gel-packs, a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You're going to need them.

The process of making TATP requires several hours of persistent and dangerous preparation.  Once the materials are successfully mixed, they need to be dried for a couple of hours.  Even assuming that other passengers don’t mind that a lavatory has been commandeered for five hours, the results may not be catastrophic.

While it's true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it's unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that's about all you're likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.