LEFT: An unexploded metal bomb ? filled with explosive powder and lined with metal pellets ? is seen in a still handout image, Boston, Massachusetts, March 18, 2015. US Attorney's Office/Handout via Reuters; RIGHT: Paul George Dandan, 30 ? a full-time employee of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) based at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Booking photo released on November 11, 2017. AFP/Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office

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WASHINGTON: Police in North Carolina have arrested and charged two men ? one an airport employee ? for possessing a homemade bomb, police said.

They said a man named Derrick Fells, 39, had constructed the device.

Upon his arrest Sunday ? following a 911 phone call from an unidentified informant ? Fells admitted making the device, which was described as a pipe bomb.

Fells told police in Charlotte he had intended to use the bomb against a neighbour with whom he had been arguing, but changed his mind and gave it to Paul Dandon, 30, a full-time employee of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) based at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Police said Dandon's job gave him access only to an offsite air traffic control tower, but not to any restricted area in the airport terminal or to any aircraft.

In a separate statement, the FAA said Dandon's access to those facilities had been terminated and that he was cooperating with authorities, including agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Dandon was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) and related charges.

Fells was charged with three counts, including manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction.

While the US Defense Department defines WMDs as those capable of causing mass casualties, the Justice Department has given prosecutors broad flexibility to apply the term to weapons including bombs, grenades, and certain guns.