Russia is behind sending parcels with incendiary devices that were supposed to cause fires on planes flying to the United States and Canada, reports The WSJ
Devices intended for a terror attack ignited at DHL logistics warehouses in the UK and Germany in July of this year.
Western intelligence officials believe that Russia’s GRU orchestrated the fires. The incidents at a distribution warehouse in Birmingham and at Leipzig Airport were allegedly tests to see if fires could be started on planes bound for North America.
The Polish National Prosecutor’s Office indicated that Russian intelligence was using this method to test channels for sending similar packages to the US and Canada.
The fires at DHL warehouses were sparked by electric massagers containing magnesium-based flammable materials. Magnesium-based fires are hard to put out, especially on board a plane. The incident at Jablonow near Warsaw took two hours to extinguish, according to Polish reports. Experts suggest that, if such a device caught fire on a plane, it would likely force an emergency landing—a challenge over the ocean.
Sources for WSJ said they do not know if the Russian intelligence operation was sanctioned by the Kremlin. If such sabotage had resulted in a plane crash, it would have led to a serious escalation in tensions between Russia and the West, according to the publication’s sources.
Polish authorities have detained four individuals suspected of preparing acts of sabotage, though their identities have not been disclosed.
