Defective iPad blamed for Cameroon airport bomb scare

The bomb alert at the Nsimalen International airport was a false alarm triggered by the inability of airport security to determine the exact nature of a defective iPad battery, it has emerged.

Two people arrested in connection with the false bomb alert on Thursday have now been released an allowed to continue their journey to the United States, where they were due to attend the graduation of a relative.

Diplomats and Western countries and transport ministry officials were alarmed by the news, which broke on the heels of the removal of suspected explosive material from the baggage of a passenger at the Douala International Airport two weeks ago.

“The suspicious object turned out to be an unusual swelling of an iPad battery found in the hand luggage of a lady travelling to the United States,” said an airport ground personnel.

It took nearly a day to discover the iPad malfunction because the airport’s lone explosives experts was off duty. He was called in but arrived at the airport about three hours after and hadn’t adequate equipment.

The owner of the hand luggage and her travel companion were arrested pending the determination of the exact nature of what airport security then considered to be potentially explosive.

The identity of the passengers involved were not released.

Security at Cameroon’s airports are considered weak and foreign governments like the United States have been helping the government to improve its apparatus as part of the global response to increasing terrorism.

Both incidents in Douala and Yaounde came in the middle of negotiations between Cameroonian and American aviation authorities to open direct flights between both countries.