Two different men were arrested in airports far apart last week when TSA agents discovered hand grenades in their carry-on luggage. On the one hand, it doesn’t appear that this was a coordinated attempt at a terrorist attack on opposite ends of the country. On the other hand, it is a weirdly specific coincidence.
The first incident happened at Hilo International Airport in Hawaii. The bomb squad evacuated the airport on Tuesday, July 9, after TSA security guards saw what looked like two hand grenades in a checked bag. The devices were, in fact, inert hand grenades.
The TSA arrested 41-year-old Alito Fukushima, an American tourist who was on his way back to the US from Japan. Even though the grenades were inert and could not have exploded, Fukushima was arrested on charges of first-degree terroristic threatening.
That same day, another man was stopped in Pittsburgh at the airport by TSA agents. That person’s name has not been released and it is unclear from media reports whether he was arrested. He also had two inert hand grenades in a carry-on bag. The man said that a friend told him it was okay to carry the grenades on a plane since they were inert.
It seems like a bizarre coincidence that two different people on opposite ends of the country were stopped on the same day while carrying grenades onto planes. Could this have been some sort of test run? Plus, what’s going on in Japan? Mr. Fukushima made it through airport security on that end and carried his two grenades all the way to the airport in Hawaii.
The TSA had this response to the incident in Pittsburgh:
.@TSA removed these two grenades from a checked bag at @PITairport this morning. Fortunately they were inert. Either way, live or inert, these can't fly! The traveler said his friend told him that he could take them on a plane. With friends like that, . . . pic.twitter.com/PmY00gkp2A
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) July 9, 2024
