Crime & Courts

Judge refuses to toss out charges in Wichita airport suicide bomb plot case

Associated Press
The gate where Terry Loewen was arrested is located between Hawker Beechcraft Services, where he worked, and Yingling Aviation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in 2013. The yellow paint on the drive mark where the van was parked.
The gate where Terry Loewen was arrested is located between Hawker Beechcraft Services, where he worked, and Yingling Aviation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in 2013. The yellow paint on the drive mark where the van was parked. Molly McMillin The Wichita Eagle

A federal judge has once again refused to dismiss charges against a man accused of a suicide bomb plot at Wichita’s airport just because the explosives used in the undercover sting were fake.

Terry Loewen was arrested in December 2013 when the former avionics technician allegedly tried to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at what was then called Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. He is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use an explosive device to damage property and attempting to give material support to al-Qaida

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on Thursday denied a motion to reconsider his decision refusing to toss out the bomb-related charges.

Defense attorneys argued that because the explosives were inert their client could not have committed the crimes. Belot disagreed.

This story was originally published April 10, 2015 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Judge refuses to toss out charges in Wichita airport suicide bomb plot case."

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