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FBI: Dynamite found in luggage

Pennsylvania student not involved in terrorism, U.S. officials say

The dog who detected the suspected explosives is shown off by his handler for a local television reporter.

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(CNN) -- A college student was detained Friday after customs agents found what they suspected was dynamite in his checked luggage, but authorities said he was not involved in terrorism.

Authorities identified the man as Howard McFarland Fish, 21, a U.S. citizen from Connecticut. He was flying on Continental Airlines Flight 52 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Houston, Texas, which landed at 6 a.m. Friday, FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said.

"It has not been tested, but it's believed to be a half-stick of dynamite," Dunlap said of the item in Fish's luggage.

"The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force responded and determined that it was not an act of terrorism and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Fish into custody. ICE is currently consulting with the U.S. attorney in Houston regarding possible criminal charges," ICE said in a statement.

The Associated Press reported the man attended LaFayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Reports indicate that he had bomb-making components in his luggage.

In Buenos Aires, Marcelo Sain, head of Argentina's Airport Security Police, told local television that authorities found "a Coca-Cola bottle with mud, and inside it was a tube with ammonium nitrate, a little bit of dynamite and a detonator," according to Reuters.

In Houston, KTRK-13 quoted law enforcement sources as saying that the man had a blasting cap, a homemade fuse and a quarter-pound of ammonium nitrate, in addition to the dynamite.

Mark Mancuso, spokesman for the Houston Airport System, said he could not confirm the allegations but that "some additional items of contraband may have been found."

Two law enforcement sources told CNN that the additional items may have been bomb-making materials. The ICE statement said only that he had "prohibited explosive items."

The man was going through a "typical inspection" at George Bush Intercontinental Airport when the suspicious item was found, Mancuso said.

After discovering the item, customs agents called police, and a bomb-sniffing dog "came over and alerted on the item," Mancuso said, calling the canine's tip "a pretty good indication they were explosives."

The passenger said he had been exploring mines in Bolivia and purchased the dynamite as a souvenir, Mancuso said. It was removed from the airport and taken to a downtown Houston lab for analysis, he said.

The incident caused only minimal disruption in a small area of the airport, Mancuso said. The flight continued on to Newark, New Jersey.

In other aviation incidents, the AP reported:

• An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago, Illinois, was forced to land in Bangor, Maine, in response to an unspecified threat, authorities said. Passengers deplaned and were led to a holding area, said airport manager Rebecca Hupp. The jetliner was on the tarmac with its engines shut down.

"The [Transportation Security Administration] learned of a reported threat to the aircraft while it was en route," TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said, declining to give further details.

• A U.S. Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after a federal air marshal subdued a disruptive passenger who had pushed a flight attendant, the FBI said.

The passenger was taken into custody at Will Rogers World Airport, FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said. The passenger was undergoing a mental evaluation, and authorities had yet to determine what criminal charges he might face. The twin-engine jet returned to the air three hours later on its flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to Charlotte, North Carolina.

• A Continental Airlines flight from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Bakersfield, California, was held in El Paso, Texas, one of its scheduled stops, after the crew discovered that a panel was missing in a lavatory, authorities said.

• A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said. No arrests were made and there were no threats involved, said Master Sgt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman.

• An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin, Ireland, was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.