Feds worried about laptop bombs on planes

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - The White House says U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies believe ISIS can build laptop bombs to possibly take down passenger airlines.

Fox News has confirmed that intelligence official fear that terrorists have gotten their hands on sophisticated airport security equipment that allows them to learn how to properly conceal explosives in laptps and other electronic devices.

Security expert Manny Gomez says that the threat needs to be taken seriously.

The intelligence, gathered over the past several months, is said to have played a role in the president's travel and electronics ban.

It prohibits travelers flying out of 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa from carrying laptps and iPads in their carry-on luggage.  The ban reportedly comes after, not one specific piece of intelligence, but a culmination of intercepted information.

The Department of Homeland Security rreleased a statement saying, in part:  "Intelligence indicates that the terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation, to include smuggling explosive devices in electronics."

The intelligence shows that ISIS is among several terrorist groups plotting to put bombs in laptops on airplanes bound for the United States.

Terrorists have had some success before with a laptop bomb.  Six passengers were hurt on a plane at an airport in Somalia in March of 2016 when a bomb planted in a laptop exploded.