PETN
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PETN is a powerful plastic explosive. A few ounces can blast open an airplane, so it is the preferred weapon of terrorists.
On Christmas Day 2009 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit from Amsterdam carried PETN but failed to detonate it. The plane was carrying more than 300 people.
Abdulmutallab tried to ignite a two-part concoction of PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive. It set off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation, because he used the wrong technique.