BALTIMORE (AP) - College student Nathaniel Heatwole apparently wanted to shine a spotlight on
aviation security by putting banned items aboard planes. Authorities are now putting him under the
spotlight.
Heatwole, a 20-year-old junior at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., was expected to be the focus of
a hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Monday.
FBI spokesman Bill Carter said Sunday the FBI had no other information on the proceedings and
directed calls to the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore. Messages left with the U.S. Attorney's office
Sunday weren't returned.
On Thursday night, Southwest Airlines maintenance workers found small plastic bags containing box
cutters, bleach, matches and modeling clay in lavatory compartments on planes in New Orleans and
Houston.
Notes in the bags "indicated the items were intended to challenge Transportation Security
Administration checkpoint security procedures," according to a statement from Dallas-based
Southwest Airlines.
A Bush administration official has said the suspected perpetrator last month sent the government an
e-mail warning of his intention to conceal suspicious items on six planes and provided dates and
locations for the plan.
The suspect was identified through a database search that linked the bags found on the planes to the
e-mail, the Transportation Security Administration said.
The discovery triggered stepped-up inspections of the entire U.S. commercial air fleet -- roughly 7,000
planes. But after consulting with the FBI, the TSA rescinded the inspection order.
No other such suspicious bags were found in the inspection.
The modeling clay found aboard the Southwest planes was made to look like an explosive, while the
bleach could have been used to demonstrate how a corrosive or dangerous liquid could be smuggled
aboard a plane.
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On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov