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TSA Issues Advisory On Remote Controls

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2007

Updated: 10/01/2007 03:56 pm

TAMPA - People carrying remote-controlled toys in carry-on luggage should expect additional screening at the nation's airports, according to an advisory released today by the Transportation Security Administration.

The advisory is not related to any incident or threat, according to TSA officials, who suggested travelers with these toys allow extra time before boarding. A "secondary screening" takes about three to four minutes.

"We always want to be at least one step ahead of an adaptive terrorist," TSA Miami spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said. "We train our officers in looking at common devices."

One of two University of South Florida students arrested recently in South Carolina has been indicted on a federal charge related to an Internet video posting showing him modifying a remote-controlled toy car, prosecutors have said.

Christopher White, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., did not specifically identify the student's video as a concern in crafting the advisory. "A number of factors came together on this, including open-source information and classified channels," White said.

A federal indictment unsealed Aug. 31 charges engineering students Ahmed Mohamed, 26, and Youssef Megahed, 21, with transporting explosives without a permit and Mohamed with trying to help terrorists by teaching or demonstrating the use of explosives.

That charge stems from a video Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer says Mohamed admitted posting to the YouTube Web site in which he shows how to turn a remote-controlled toy car into a bomb detonator. On the video, Mohamed says the detonator could "save one who wants to be a martyr for another day, another battle," Hoffer said.

The two were arrested during a traffic stop in Berkeley County, S.C., about seven miles from the Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station. They had three pieces of PVC pipe in the trunk. Each pipe was filled with a "low-grade explosive" mixture of potassium nitrate, Karo syrup and kitty litter, with the litter used as a binder to keep the substance from coming out of the uncapped pipes, Hoffer said. Also in the car were a 20-foot length of safety fuse and a container of gasoline.

Both men remain behind bars. The students are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

The TSA advisory states the additional security is part of a period of "strategic warning" discussed in the National Intelligence Estimate on Homeland Security released in July.

Koshetz said the federal agency has received intelligence that the remote controls for these toys could be used as detonators.

Travelers who wish to avoid possible delays should pack remote-controlled toys in checked baggage, White said.

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