Federal authorities said they arrested Pennsylvania man Marc Muffley after he allegedly checked a bag containing an explosive device onto flight bound for Florida.
A Pennsylvania man was arrested after he checked luggage at an airport containing an explosive device, federal authorities said.
Marc Muffley was denied bail on Thursday by a federal judge following his Monday arrest on charges of possessing an explosive in an airport and possessing or attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, according to federal officials.
Muffley, 40, acknowledged putting explosive materials, fuses and a lighter in a bag and checking it onto a commercial flight to Florida, federal authorities said, and then fled Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley airport when he heard himself being paged to report to security.
Muffley called his girlfriend to come get get him and changed his phone number to cover his tracks, federal prosecutors said.
“The danger he created ... is simply astonishing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Stephan said at a Thursday bond hearing, according to the Associated Press. “The fact TSA (the Transportation Security Administration) was able to immediately locate this device and prevent it from being placed on an airplane is to their credit."
But defense lawyer Jonathan McDonald countered the items were not “incendiary” and were fireworks. “No one has posited one conceivable theory on how this thing could have gone off. That was not going to happen inside of a bag,” McDonald said.
The judge agreed with the prosecutor and denied Muffley bail. He has not entered a plea.
