Bomb Expert Ed Seuter Dies in Plane Crash

Ed Seuter, a highly respected explosives expert who shared his knowledge of bomb threat management through articles in Campus Safety magazine and speaking engagements at campus safety conferences throughout the country, died Feb. 22 in a private plane crash in Maryland. He was 40.

The single-engine plane piloted by Seuter crashed into a field a few hundred feet from Freeway Airport in Bowie, Md., where officials said the plane was attempting to land in snowy, overcast conditions. Seuter and a passenger identified as a flight instructor were killed. A third person in the plane was reportedly hospitalized in serious condition.

Seuter, who served as a reservist in Iraq as recently as 2003, had world-wide experience providing technical training, advice and equipment to the private sector, government agencies and educational and hospital campuses. He founded Explosive Countermeasures Int’l in 1989.

With his quick wit, no-nonsense style and extensive knowledge of explosives and bomb-threat management, Seuter was a favorite speaker of Campus Safety Conference attendees. For example, at conferences in 2002 near Charlotte, N.C., and in 2004 in Chicago, Seuter described in detail how campus safety professionals could weed out amateur or prank bomb threats that could be quickly checked out and dismissed from those that merited immediate evacuation of campuses.

In 2004, Seuter offered Explosive Countermeasures Int’l’s services free of charge to CS readers at elementary, middle and secondary schools in the Washington and Atlanta metro areas. “We feel that, as a professional company, we should try to help out in the communities where we live, work and our children go to school,” Seuter said at the time. “Simply put, we want to give back to our communities.”

Seuter had been scheduled to host a day-long seminar titled “Bomb Threat Management for School, College and Hospital Campuses” for Campus Safety magazine at the ASIS security conference in San Diego in September. Former Campus Safety editor Tom Nelson, who worked closely with Seuter at the conferences, said, “The field of campus safety has lost a great friend and an amazing resource. Ed was a quality person to work with and, more importantly, was a fantastic person.”

Seuter is survived by his wife Megan and two girls, ages 4 and 7.

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