Nathaniel Heatwole
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Nathaniel "Nat" Heatwole (born May 29, 1983) is an American convicted of placing box cutters and other banned items inside two commercial aircraft.
Heatwole, then a political science and physics student at Guilford College and a self-proclaimed pacifist, is identified as the person who sent an e-mail on September 15, 2003, to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), reporting "security breaches" at two East-coast airports between February 7 and September 14, and stating an intent of "public disobedience" to show "flaws" in the airport security systems of the United States. On the day of the e-mail, packages containing banned materials were found inside two Southwest Airlines 737's, which landed in Houston and in New Orleans respectively.
On Friday October 17, the TSA provided the message to the FBI, which promptly identified Heatwole as the apparent author, and on the following Monday, he was charged with taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft, a felony punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. United States magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey released him on his own recognizance pending trial. Ultimately, Heatwole pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to two years supervised probation, a $500 fine, and 100 hours of community service. He was also ordered to reimburse his parents for up to $500 in legal expenses.
Nat now lives in a hut in outer Mongolia after being shunned by all other Quakers for his actions
