Official: 2nd LAX worker also set off dry ice bomb

[October 19, 2013]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Police arrested a second airport employee Friday for allegedly setting a dry ice bomb at the Los Angeles International Airport that exploded outside the international terminal while a plane was parked nearby, according to a law enforcement official.

The official, who was briefed on the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly, said 41-year-old Miguel Angel Iniguez admitted to setting a dry ice bomb that exploded Sunday outside gate 148 of the airport's Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Iniguez was arrested Friday while at work and booked on suspicion of possessing a destructive device near an aircraft. He's being held on $500,000 bail.

Iniguez, a supervisor for the aviation ground services company Servisair, was also responsible for Dicarlo Bennett, 28, who was arrested Tuesday night for allegedly setting the devices. He pleaded not guilty Thursday to two counts of possessing a destructive device in a public place.

No one was hurt when a plastic bottle packed with dry ice exploded Sunday in an employee bathroom and another blew up on the airport's tarmac. An employee found a third plastic bottle expanding Monday night on the tarmac near where the other exploded.

Bennett was riding in a van with several people, including a supervisor, Sunday night when he decided to make the dry ice bombs in plastic bottles, the official said. Those in the van were aware of the dry ice, though no one else was initially arrested.

Police said Dicarlo planted the three devices out of personal curiosity. They'd initial worked on the theory that dry ice bombs were the work of a disgruntled employee due to an internal labor dispute. Swissport recently agreed to acquire Servisair and the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.

Servisair did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Los Angeles police officials said building dry ice bombs is a felony.

A man was killed in 1992 while cleaning a liquor store in Los Angeles when a kid created a dry ice bomb with a glass bottle and the man picked it up. Glass shards slit his throat and he bled to death.

[Associated Press; By TAMI ABDOLLAH]

Tami Abdollah can be reached at
http://twitter.com/latams.

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