Jamaican Man Tries to Check Bomb-Making Kit onto Plane

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Fellow travelers at the Orlando International Airport told reporters the man was "acting crazy."

Said passenger Jason Doyle to reporters at WFTV, "He was acting all weird, shaking left to right, up and down. He looked like a crazy man, basically."

Baggage security staff agreed, and searched the bags of Kevin Brown, 32, when he tried to check them for a flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica. They found two vodka bottles containing nitro-methane, a race car fuel that also acts as an explosive, two pipes, BB pellets, lighter fluid, batteries, and the clinchers, a rocket igniter and step-by-step instructions for how to make a bomb.

He’d have to be crazy to think he could sneak all of the materials onto a plane these days. One might even guess that the proximity to April Fool’s Day had to have something to do with it, for a man to carry a rocket-igniter (what is that, anyway?) and a handy "Ten Easy Steps for Assembling a Bomb" booklet. Come on!

But officials, and the man himself, swear it’s no joke. Jamaican citizen Kevin Brown, 32, told airport authorities differing stories. First he told them that he was going to assemble and then detonate a bomb on a tree stump in Jamaica. Next, he insisted that the bomb materials were just to show his friends at home what he had seen in Iraq. (Authorities are investigating whether or not Brown has ever been to Iraq, though records show he was in the military from 1999 to 2003.)

A preliminary hearing was postponed pending a further investigation into Brown’s story and background, including a possible history of mental illness. He is being held without bail pending a hearing. Brown will be charged with attempting to bring an incendiary device onto an aircraft. Officials say Brown does not appear to have any terrorist ties.

Christopher Ronay, who previously headed the FBI’s explosives unit (and is now in charge of the Institute of Makers of Explosives – yes, that really is the name), talked with the press. Ronay described nitro-methane as a "flammable, hazardous liquid," but declined to describe it further for fear of encouraging would-be bomb makers to seek it out. Nitro-methane was used in combination with other materials by bomber Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

Air Jamaica director Shirley Williams emphasized to reporters that the materials, as they were, would not have been a direct threat to anyone on an aircraft, and that at no time were passengers at risk. However, Brown’s arrest and related security breach caused long delays for 11 flights at Orlando International.