Thought experiment: If Ahmed’s “clock” were found on the plane, what would pilots have done?

An Air France flight was diverted to an emergency landing after a bomb-like device was found in a bathroom. It was a fake, made of cardboard with a crude timer on it, as would have been obvious to anyone handling it.

But the pilots took no chances.

CBS News reports:

Kenyan authorities are questioning several suspects who were on an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris that was forced to land early Sunday in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa after a device suspected to be a bomb was found in a lavatory. The CEO of Air France said hours after the plane had been grounded that the device discovered in the bathroom was a fake bomb. The Boeing 777 was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Mauritius when its pilots requested an emergency landing at early Sunday in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. Frederic Gagey, the head of the airline, said the device was made of cardboard, paper and a household timer, and had been found in a little cupboard that is behind a mirror.

Here are images being widely reported as the fake bomb [See also Featured Image]:

Heres the close up of the timing mechanism:

Unlike Ahmed’s clock in Texas, this device did appear to have some sort of fake explosive attached to it.

Thought experiment: If Ahmed’s “clock” were found on the plane, what do you suppose the pilots would have done? Wait to find out?



