FLIGHT RISK

IT'S SUSPECTED THAT A RECENT SPATE OF GLOBAL AVIATION INCIDENTS INVOLVING EXPLODING CARGO, HACKED GPS SYSTEMS, OR SPOOFED COORDINATES TRACES BACK TO RUSSIAN AGGRESSORS. THE SOPHISTICATION OF THE ATTACKS ONLY RIVALS RUSSIA'S PENCHANT FOR BRUTALITY, SO WHAT'S NEXT? THE SKY'S THE LIMIT

- JEFF WISE

FIRST, SMOKE CURLED OUT FROM THE CUBE OF PACKAGES STACKED ON A PALLET at a DHL logistics hub near Birmingham, England, last July. Then a lick of flame emerged from the top of the stack. Racing to prevent the fire from spreading, a forklift operator snatched up the burning pallet and dashed away with it, setting it down at a safe remove before the stack turned into a roaring bonfire.

Not long after, 600 miles to the east, inside another DHL logistics hub in Leipzig, Germany, a similar scene played out. Then, according to Polish media, a third courier-related fire started near Warsaw. Polish officials say they intercepted yet another device before it went off and arrested at least four suspects. Another suspect was arrested in Lithuania, according to The Wall Street Journal, and charged with sending four of the devices from the capital city of Vilnius.

An incendiary device made of a magnesium-based substance had apparently sparked each fire. Investigators suspect that the sabotage was organized by Russia’s military intelligence agency as part of an ongoing campaign to sow chaos across Western Europe.

The packages that erupted in Germany and England were both scheduled to be shipped on planes operated by DHL, the global logistics company headquartered in Germany. One had arrived at the warehouse via air freight, and one was about to be loaded. Magnesium fires are particularly dangerous because dousing them with water only makes the fire worse; a special powder has to be used. The fire that ignited in Poland took two hours to extinguish, per local reports.