BRIEFLY PIPE BOMB FOUND OUTSIDE PLANT 42.

PALMDALE - A pipe bomb found Monday morning outside the Air Force Plant 42 fence closed down Avenue P to traffic for two hours, sheriff's deputies said.

The Sheriff's Department bomb squad detonated the device where it lay just after 9 a.m., officials said. It was a plastic pipe about four or five inches long, capped at both ends with a fuse in the middle, officials said.

A Plant 42 maintenance worker found the bomb laying in the dirt beside Avenue P near the 20th Street East gate, which leads to the closed Palmdale Airport terminal, officials said.

The worker alerted plant security personnel, who called the Sheriff's Department.

Deputies detoured traffic off Avenue P from 25th Street East to 20th Street East, and shut down 20th Street East north of Avenue Q, until the bomb squad arrived and exploded the bomb.

- Daily News