Counter Terror Gazette

Case Study: Times Square Car Bomb Attempt

17 Aug 2010

Date: 1 May 2010  Location: Times Square, New York City, United States

Details: Smoke was seen coming from a Nissan Pathfinder SUV, with its engine and hazard lights on, parked on Times Square at approximately 6.30pm local time.  A police officer saw canisters inside the car and the smell of gunpowder. The bomb had ignited but had failed to detonate.

Modus Operandi: The vehicle had been rigged with a gun locker that contained 113kg of a urea-based fertilizer with 120 M-88 firecrackers inside a pressure cooker connected to two alarm clocks fashioned as triggers; 10 gallons of gasoline; gunpowder; 3 x full 20 gallon propane tanks.  The car bomb was comprised of four separate explosive components.  Had it detonated correctly, the firecrackers would have set off triggering devices attached to the gasoline, which in turn would have created an explosion that would have set off the propane and fertilizer.  The improvised explosive device’s ignition malfunctioned and failed to set off the process.  New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that had it detonated it would have caused a significant fireball, have sprayed shrapnel and killed or wounded many people. A New York Police Department bomb disposal team used a remote-controlled robot to break one of the vehicle’s windows, inspect the contents and disarm the device…MORE ONLINE