Something about Kevin Brown’s mannerisms, facial expressions or behavior as he wandered the airport terminal Tuesday just didn’t sit well with Cleveland Laycock.

Laycock — who manages a group of Transportation Security Administration officers at Orlando International Airport who look for unusual behavior among travelers — called for backup, and his crew tracked Brown’s movements closely. Within 90 minutes, Brown, a Jamaican citizen, was detained, and the bomb-making components in his luggage were in the custody of federal agents.

It was the first time since the 2006 creation of the Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques program — SPOT — that behavioral experts were able to thwart a passenger with “hostile intent” who had bomb-making components, said Lee Kair, federal security director at OIA.

Brown has since been charged with attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, and he is being held without bond inOrlando International Airport Jail.

To the untrained eye, Brown, who showed up for his Air Jamaica flight long before the ticket counter opened Tuesday, probably looked like a typical tourist.

But the men and women trained to pick up on microfacial expressions and unconscious actions who work around the clock at 40 major U.S. airports know how to differentiate between stressed-out families who are running late and those who could be a potential security threat.

“You do have that normal stress factor in the airport; what you are looking for is something that is deviating from that,” Laycock said of his Behavior Detection Officers.

Both TSA and airport officials said that on Tuesday everything worked perfectly on all security fronts.

“It just went fantastic from my perspective,” Kair said.

About midday, Brown, wearing a backpack, walked into the airport with two bags loaded with pipes, end caps, a flammable liquid and an Internet printout on how to piece the materials together to make a bomb.

Almost immediately, Brown’s behaviors were noted by Laycock, who was on his way to a meeting. He called for Jose Zengotita, a uniformed officer who became a behavioral expert earlier this year.

After Brown checked his bags at the Air Jamaica ticket counter and carried them over to a screening station, Zengotita called for a thorough check. That’s when the bombmaking materials were discovered.

Within seconds, Bomb Appraisal Officer David Platt — a bombing expert who designed an armed robot currently being used in combat in Iraq — was called over. He immediately knew it was a situation that warranted “calling out the cavalry.”

Within minutes, a perimeter was set up around the explosives, and officers who were tracking Brown led Orlando police officers to him. He was taken into custody near the retail area before getting to the security checkpoint, Kair said. By then, dozens of security officers from several agencies were swarming the airport.

Behavior-detection officers have prevented people with guns from getting on airplanes at other airports across the nation. They were once credited with finding a murder suspect at a Minnesota airport.

The need for keen observational skills on airport grounds became clear after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as investigators learned how easy it had been for the hijackers to enter the United States.

Four Sept. 11 hijackers had passed through immigration screening at OIA in the months before the attacks. A fifth traveler thought to have been part of the plot — a man later captured fighting in Afghanistan — was turned away by a veteran Orlando immigration inspector who disliked the man’s explanations and attitude.

But the success at stopping one would-be hijacker illustrated that the system relied heavily on the skills of airport workers who watch and interact with travelers.

SPOT helps beef up security in airports using the behavior specialists to bolster traditional security methods.

Tuesday was “probably the proudest day I’ve had here in TSA,” Zengotita said. “It went perfect in every way you can imagine.”

Bianca Prieto can be reached at 407-420-5620 or bprieto@orlandosentinel.com.
[via Orlandosentinel]

A federal judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors have enough evidence to hold a man arrested on charges of trying to smuggle pipe-bomb components on a flight at Orlando International Airport.

U.S. Magistrate Karla Spaulding found that Orlando International Airport agents had “probable cause” to take Kevin Christopher Brown, 32, into custody Tuesday on a charge of attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vincent Citro argued that flammable nitromethane in two vodka bottles inside Brown’s checked luggage to Jamaica could have caused a fire and explosion.

Brown is being held without bail at theOrlando International Airport Jail. Federal rules require a grand jury to consider an indictment within 30 days of his arrest.

Thursday’s hearing originally was to be a detention hearing, at which prosecutors would present testimony about Brown being a danger to the community if released on bail.

But Assistant Federal Public Defender Clarence Counts announced at the start that he would waive that portion of the hearing and asked prosecutors to conduct a preliminary examination of the evidence that led to Brown’s arrest.

Counts said he may seek Brown’s release at a later date.

Brown, a lanky man with a beard, smiled broadly when he stood to acknowledge the judge entering the courtroom. During a hearing Wednesday, he was stone-faced.

Counts contended that the bomb parts seized at the airport were disassembled and clearly not a threat to the aircraft or its passengers — and, at best, would have been assembled in Jamaica.

“We don’t have a bomb. We have items that someone, somewhere . . . may have [been made into] a device capable of blowing up a tree stump,” Counts said.

FBI Task Force Agent Kelly Boaz testified that the galvanized pipes, end caps drilled with holes, a lighter, BBs, nitromethane, a model-rocket igniter and bomb-making instructions were found in Brown’s baggage as he prepared to board Air Jamaica Flight 80.

Transportation Security Administration officers deemed Brown suspicious, searched his bags and detained him.

Boaz testified that Brown first told investigators he was going to blow up a tree stump on his cousin’s property. He later said he was going to show friends how to make “improvised explosive devices just like the ones he saw in Iraq.”

Brown is an Army veteran who worked as a contractor in Iraq in 2007. Friends and relatives of Brown, who recently lived with his brother in Orlando International Airport, said he has a history mental-health problems. But Citro produced no evidence about that Thursday.

Boaz said Brown poured the nitromethane into two plastic bottles because he was concerned about the strength of the original containers. Still, Boaz said, the way the chemical was packaged in the luggage was potentially “disastrous.”

Asked by Citro whether they could have ignited, Boaz said: “If they came across a heat source, they could have.”

Jim Leusner can be reached at 407-420-5411 or jleusner@orlandosentinel.com. Willoughby Mariano can be reached at 407-420-5171 or wmariano@orlandosentinel.com.
A related story ran on page A1.

[via Orlandosentinel]

A Jamaican planning to board a flight at Orlando International Airport was detained and questioned by Orlando International Airport agents Tuesday after they found components for pipe bombs and explosive and flammable liquids in his checked luggage.

The suspect was identified late Tuesday as Kevin Brown, 32, a Jamaican national who was scheduled to fly on Air Jamaica Flight 80 to Montego Bay at 2:55 p.m. Transportation Security Administration officers spotted him acting suspiciously about noon, TSA and law-enforcement officials said. Several officials said the man was “acting strange” and questioned his mental stability.

Brown was charged with attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft and booked into the Seminole County Jail late Tuesday. He will appear before a federal judge in Orlando today.

Wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, Brown was searched by a bomb technician on a curb outside the airport terminal. His camouflage-style backpack also was seized and searched by an Orlando Fire Department bomb squad.

TSA searched his luggage and found “suspicious items,” according to TSA officials. Among the items seized were two galvanized pipes, end caps, two small containers of BB pellets, batteries, two containers of liquids, a laptop computer and bomb-making literature, according to an FBI statement released Tuesday night.

The search took place during the busy spring-break vacation season, with many visitors departing town after attending Orlando International Airport 24 on Sunday. Orlando police sealed off a 300-foot perimeter near the check-in counters at Terminal A for more than two hours while bomb-squad technicians searched the suspect and his backpack at curbside. Several airlines, including Air Canada, WestJet, Air Jamaica and Virgin Atlantic, had flights delayed.

Joel Salazar, 25, who was en route to Lima, Peru, was among the hundreds of confused travelers standing in long, snaking lines and waiting for direction from airport personnel.

“Nobody told us what was going on,” Salazar said.

Lee Kair, the top TSA official in Orlando, would not give details about the seized materials in the luggage, the suspect or whether he was traveling with anyone.

“I can say there was no immediate threat to passengers in the terminal,” Kair said.

Authorities also said they did not think the materials posed a direct threat to passengers on the plane.

Brown was detected by a TSA “behavioral specialist” trained since 2006 in spotting involuntary actions by people being deceptive, Kair said.

After the passenger checked in his bag, officials diverted it from the normal screening process, looked inside and found the prohibited items. Officers later confronted him.

“It’s really a testament to the system working,” Kair said. He did not say how far the suspect got into the airport before being taken into custody.

U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Orlando International Airport, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said he was briefed by TSA on Tuesday but could not discuss details for security reasons.

“If what TSA has described to me is true, it’s probably the most serious incident we’ve had at OIA,” said Mica, former chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee. “At least one and possibly two [security] backup systems we put in place worked.”

FBI spokesman Dave Couvertier said agents detained the man and questioned him about the items found in his luggage.

Airport officials temporarily routed passengers away from the Virgin Atlantic and Air Jamaica check-in areas at Terminal A. Flight operations and check-in continued elsewhere, according to the TSA.

Air Jamaica Chairwoman Shirley Williams said the man, who was born in Jamaica and carried a passport from that country, lives in the United States and used his green card to check in at the airport. She said Flight 80 took off at 5:31 p.m. with 96 passengers aboard.

OIA spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell said 11 of the daily 1,000 commercial, private and cargo flights were affected. The incident occurred about noon; it was 5:30 p.m. before operations returned to normal.

Passengers at the airport described confusion in Terminal A, where they were forced to abandon luggage at ticket counters and faced long lines when they were allowed to return.

Janet Lawe was almost to the ticket counter about noon when airport officials announced that the area was being evacuated.

“We were also told there was a guy with an explosive,” said Lawe, 40, who was visiting from Kingston, Jamaica, with her husband and two children. The family was booked on the same flight as Brown.

Tuesday’s incident follows a security breach at OIA in March 2007, when federal agents arrested two airline employees who used their security privileges to smuggle 13 handguns, a rifle and 8 pounds of marijuana aboard a Delta flight to San Juan, Orlando International Airport.

The incident prompted the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority to spend $5 million on security upgrades.
[via Orlandosentinel]