Feds Warn Airlines of Bomb Threat in Toothpaste Tubes

Warning specific to flight to Russia for Olympics
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 5, 2014 5:42 PM CST
Feds Warn Airlines of Bomb Threat in Toothpaste Tubes
   (Shutterstock)

Homeland Security officials say airlines flying to Russia ahead of the Olympics ought to pay special attention to passengers' toothpaste tubes because they could contain explosives to make a bomb, reports ABC News. Authorities say they passed along the threat "out of an abundance of caution" and know of no specific plot in the works. Nor did they elaborate on what prompted the warning, which also covers tubes of cosmetics.

It applies mostly to foreign airlines, though the AP notes that Delta has a direct flight from the US to Moscow. Russian airlines Aeroflot and Transaero also operate direct flights from the US. "We're not telling people not to go," Secretary of State John Kerry tells CNN. But "we've got a new consciousness about this." (In other Sochi news, click to read about some hotel horror stories.)

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