See the bomb can the ISIL claim to have used on the Russian airliner

Experts weigh-in on whether ISIL's claim to
have used a can of Schweppes to destroy
Russian airliner is credible.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
made the headline-grabbing claim on
Wednesday that it used explosives hidden in a
can of Schweppes soda to down a Russian
airliner over Egypt's Sinai.
The revelation, carried in its English-language
online magazine Dabiq, was accompanied by a
photograph purporting to show the device used
last month to kill all 224 people onboard the
Metrojet flight.

  It is said that  “
When a bomb detonates on an aircraft,
all you have to do is punch a hole in
the side of an aircraft large enough to
create an explosive decompression
and the plane actually blows itself up

There was the can, and what looked like a
detonator and a switch.
But could such crude-looking materials - in such
a small package - be enough to break up an
Airbus A321 typically weighing at least 70
tonnes?
Some experts told Al Jazeera that, based on
the photo alone, ISIL's claim was credible.
"Inside the can itself - if filled to full capacity -
there are probably 200 to 300 grammes of high
explosives. So certainly it’s a viable
device," Chris Hunter, an explosives expert,
said.
"And certainly if placed in the optimal position,
it could potentially destroy the aircraft and
cause catastrophic failure."
Hunter said that at 30,000 feet (which is more
than nine kilometres) above sea level, a breach
in the shell of the aircraft would cause it to
completely disintegrate.
Russia said on Tuesday that it believed a bomb
was to blame for the crash, a conclusion
several Western governments had already
reached. President Vladimir Putin has offered a
$50m reward for information leading to the
capture of those who destroyed the jet.
"Keep in mind that when a bomb detonates on
an aircraft, all you have to do is punch a hole
in the side of an aircraft large enough to create
an explosive decompression and the plane
actually blows itself up," Douglas Laird,
an aviation security consultant, told Al Jazeera.
"A bomb just starts the process," he said.
"Based on the appearance in the photo, I don't
believe the device was in luggage. I believe the
device was in the passenger compartment."
'Security loophole exploited'
But Neal Langerman, a chemical safety
consultant based in San Francisco, told Al
Jazeera that the photo published by ISIL does
not provide much evidence as to how the plane
crashed.
"We cannot make assumptions based on a
photo. We do not even know if this was really
the device that was used. We will have to wait
for the Russians to provide forensic evidence,"
Langerman said.
ISIL, which controls large areas of Iraq and
Syria and has a powerful affiliate in the Sinai
region, also said it had exploited a loophole at
Sharm al-Sheikh airport to smuggle the bomb
onboard.
The group's claims raise difficult questions for
Egypt about the security of its airports, though
Cairo has not yet said why it believes the plane
crashed or if there was indeed a lapse
at Sharm al-Sheikh.
Two members of the ground crew were
reported by local media to have been detained
for questioning.
"It tells you a lot that ISIL can operate away
from Syria and Iraq and away from northern
Sinai where the bulk of the insurgency is going
on, because the operation happened in southern
Sinai," Egyptian political and security analyst
Omar Ashour told Al Jazeera.