Two dry ice explosions set were set off by a disgruntled employee at Los Angeles International Airport, but police are saying it wasn't an act of terror.
The bombs seems to have been made by dry ice being placed in 20-ounce bottles. If someone was close to the explosions, they could have been seriously injured but no one was around, the Daily Mail reports.
Police are treating the explosives as if they were pipe bombs but there are no specific suspects yet. However it is believed that a disgruntled employee set them off. It is not being treated as a terrorist act because no civilians were targeted.
The explosives were placed in restrictive areas where only employees are supposed to access.
The incident was discovered at 8:30 p.m. on Monday when an explosion went off near gate 148 of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Police searched the area and found two more dry ice bombs but they did not go off.
This wasn't the first incident this week. Another small blast took place in an airport bathroom that was for employees only the day before. That explosion took place in Terminal 2.
No one was injured but some flights were impacted. Departing flights were delayed for a few hours on Sunday as police searched for more explosives, KTLA5 reports.
I don't know if this is something that was done accidentally or on purpose," Sergeant Karla Ortiz, an airport police spokeswoman said. "I don't have all the details of why someone would carry dry ice in a bottle."
Investigators say someone put dry ice in a bottle and put it in the bathroom. The dry ice causes the air to expand and the bottle to explode. Dry ice bombs usually consist of a plastic bottle filled with water and solid carbon dioxide. When the carbon dioxide turn into gas, the bottle expands and eventually explodes. California and other states have a ban on them.
Flights were originally suspended but then operated with a few delays. An airport employee said he could hear the explosion for the tarmac and the bottle was located inside an empty bathroom. The bottle in this incident was a two-liter soda bottle.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
