Comment by more_corn
I find it extremely unlikely that this was done with the native capabilities and equipment in the devices. It would be extremely interesting if it were. A far simpler explanation would be explosives implanted en-route.
I find it extremely unlikely that this was done with the native capabilities and equipment in the devices. It would be extremely interesting if it were. A far simpler explanation would be explosives implanted en-route.
The more interesting question is whether any sort of remote-detonate capability was involved, or this was just timed explosives.
If you look at something like this [1], then the obvious way to do this is to replace one of the NiMH batteries with a lithium cell providing the full output voltage, and replace the other cell with the explosive payload.
A basic timer set them off, and installation would be straightforward. You could probably even arrange this to not be distinguishable on X-Ray by playing with the structure of the explosive device so it would look like a battery.
Getting a little fancier, setting your timer up so the pager "waits for a page" by current draw (from say, the buzzer motor) would be a way to try and ensure the user was holding it near their face before it went off.
What's missing in the current reporting is whether this was simultaneous, keyed to a page, or what have you.
[1] https://store.jtech.com/jtech-guestcall-pager-nimh-battery-5...