what else are you learning? perspective on how much of an explosive material you need to bring down an airliner and the answer is not much. we ve had various explosives tested in small containers, other chambers that people carry onto planes and wear on planes. experts have a consensus if someone were to get explosives into shoes or other small containers it would not take much sfloif bring a plane down. a couple weeks ago you might recall homeland security officials alerted airlines to the threat of explosives being placed in toothpaste containers. cindy alford, an expert in britain, he detonated rdx, a white kristofferscrystalline po toothpaste tube. he packed toothpaste only in about a third of that container, explosives in the rest of it. a small container of toothpaste and that s what it did. alford said that would have been enough to bring town a plane.