City bus terminal loaded with explosives

Friday, October 19, 2001

Suitcase at Center City bus terminal loaded with explosives

Police said no detonation devices were found in the bag and there was little danger of the materials exploding accidentally.

By Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. and Jere Downs
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Investigators today began trying to figure out who walked into the Greyhound depot in Center City in the middle of the night three weeks ago and left in a locker one-third of a pound of the military plastic explosive C-4 - enough to level the structure.

The C-4 and approximately 1,000 feet of military detonation cord, which were discovered about 10:30 this morning during a routine check of unclaimed luggage, forced the temporary evacuation of the depot on Filbert Street as local and federal authorities responded to the potential danger.

"It would probably have leveled the bus terminal," bomb squad commander Lt. Thomas Fitzpatrick said assessing the amount of explosive that was left behind. In order for the C-4 to have exploded, however, a blasting cap or another explosion would have been needed, he said.

The depot was reopened about four hours later, after investigators had swept through the building and deemed it safe.

"We were more concerned that there was another bag of detonators placed close by that could have initiated it," explained Fitzpatrick, speaking at a late afternoon press conference at Police Headquarters. "You need a lot to get it to go (off)."

Police Commissioner John F. Timoney said the explosives, which had been wrapped in plastic bags and placed inside a piece of Samsonite luggage, were put inside a pay storage locker in the terminal at 2:43 a.m. Sept. 29.

On Oct. 3, a red flag on the locker indicated that no additional rental money had been inserted. As a result, "the case was removed from the locker and placed in a storage room," said Timoney.

Terminal officials usually keep those items for two to three weeks to give the owner a chance to claim their property, the commissioner said. If the luggage is not claimed, it is inspected and any clothing given to the homeless, Timoney said. The rest is disposed.

The workers discovered the explosives "today, as they're going through the luggage," the commissioner said.

While police were clearing the building, a bus was pulled across the Arch Street entrance to prevent vehicles from entering the lot. Passengers aboard arriving buses were discharged along Arch Street. Police Traffic Division officers were called in to handle a large traffic jam that developed in the area.

Depot manager Alberto Silva said after evacuating his terminal today for the second time this month, that passengers seemed much more willing to clear out at a moment's notice.

All it took, Silva added, was a huddle with passengers on the concrete platform outside and one message over the public address system inside.

"I didn't have to say it more than twice, even the ones that didn't speak English, they left," Silva said. "I was ready to tackle questions and everything. When I started telling them to leave, they just looked at me and bolted."

After the depot reponed, the 54 gray storage lockers that line a wall of the terminal - and can be rented for six hours for $2 - were shut down. "They are sealed down for now," silva said.

C-4 - short for Composite-4 - is an explosive called RDX (Research Development Explosive) mixed with a plasticizer to make it pliable. It can be pushed into any shape and has a long shelf life. Fitzpatrick, a former Navy Seal, said it is normally used as a cutting charge to sever bridge abutments and slice steel.

Detonation cord, called "det cord" for short, comes on a spool and resembles olive drab clothesline. It is commonly used to take down trees. When wrapped around a tree or telephone pole and attached to a blasting cap set off by an electric charge, the explosion usually topples the object.

Investigators now will try and track where the explosives came from.

"It's not available to the general public at all. It's military grade," said Fitzpatrick. The suitcase and contents were inspected for fingerprints along with the locker in which it had been stored.

The terminal has surveillance cameras. Detectives and federal investigators will be reviewing and enhancing film footage with the hopes that the early morning time when the locker was rented - and few people were about - might work in their favor.

Timoney said investigators will look for a serial number on C-4 in hopes of being able to trace its origin.

For now, though, the police are operating on several theories.

"Clearly, the question is who put it there?" Timoney said. "Now, the assumption is they probably put it there for a two-day period, meant to come back, obviously did not come back in time, if they were coming back.

"The other theory is something happened to the individual," he continued. "Was he arrested? We're looking at a whole variety of angles."

More than locker safeguards are at stake as Greyhound - which transports 25 million people a year - beefs up the scarce security procedures in place before Sept. 11, Greyhound spokeswoman Kristin Parsley said today.

Federal regulations forbid explosives or weapons on Greyhound property, but Greyhound, which runs 20,000 buses a day, generally does not inspect carry-on luggage, nor does it screen passengers, Parsley said.

On Oct. 2, Greyhound began a pilot program of using a private security firm to inspect every passenger and their carry-on luggage on randomly chosen buses departing from Orlando, Dallas and San Francisco. Passengers who decline to be subject to a wave of a metal detector wand are given a full refund, Parsley said.

That program, since expanded to 20 other cities nationwide - New York, Chicago and Salt Lake City among them - may soon debut in Philadelphia, she added.