BALTIMORE (AP) -- A college student who told authorities he placed box cutters and other banned items aboard two airliners to test security was charged Monday with taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft and was released without bail.

Nathaniel Heatwole, 20, told federal agents he went through normal security procedures at airports in Baltimore and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Once aboard, he said he hid the banned items in compartments in the planes' rear lavatories.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled Nov. 10.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg said the government was not seeking detention.

Defense attorney Charles Leeper told U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey that it was Heatwole's "sincere desire to return to college and attend classes."

Although Heatwole sent an e-mail to federal authorities saying he had placed the items aboard two specific Southwest Airlines flights, it took authorities nearly five weeks to locate them on the planes.

The judge set a number of conditions for Heatwole's release, including that he not enter any airport or board any airplane.

Heatwole remained stoney faced during the hearing. His parents were in the courtroom but did not greet or acknowledge their son during the hearing and did not comment afterward.

The charge against Heatwole, a junior at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

An FBI affidavit obtained Monday by The Associated Press said Heatwole first breached security at Raleigh-Durham airport on Sept. 12 -- the day after the two-year anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. He did it again Sept. 15 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the affidavit said.

His bags contained box cutters, modeling clay made to look like plastic explosives, matches and bleach hidden in sunscreen bottles, the affidavit said. Inside were notes with details about when and where the items were carried aboard. They were signed "3891925," which is the reverse of Heatwole's birthday: 5/29/1983.

On Sept. 15, the Transportation Security Administration received an e-mail from Heatwole saying he had "information regarding six security breaches" at the Raleigh-Durham and Baltimore-Washington airports between Feb. 7 and Sept. 14, the FBI affidavit said.

"The writer stated that he smuggled several items on his person and some in his carryon bag," the affidavit said.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, whose department includes TSA, said officials "will go back and look at our protocol" for how such e-mails are handled. He said the agency gets a high volume of e-mails about possible threats and that the decision was made that Heatwole's "wasn't an imminent threat."

"This is not a good experience. This is a bad experience," Ridge said during a visit to Duke University. "But we may learn something about it that we can apply across the country."

The e-mail provided precise details of where the plastic bags were hidden -- right down to the exact dates and flight numbers -- and even provided Heatwole's name and telephone number. It's unclear whether Heatwole actually hid items on four other planes.

"The e-mail author also stated that he was aware his actions were against the law and that he was aware of the potential consequences for his actions, and that his actions were an 'act of civil disobedience with the aim of improving public safety for the air-traveling public,"' the affidavit said.

The e-mail was signed, "Sincerely, Nat Heatwole."

The affidavit does not say what was done about the e-mail after it was received in September. The bags containing box cutters and other items were not discovered until last Thursday night, after a lavatory on one of the planes had maintenance problems and workers found them.

The TSA did not send the e-mail to the FBI until last Friday. FBI agents quickly tracked down Heatwole and interviewed him.

The TSA did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment on the affidavit.

Heatwole's actions exposed holes in an aviation security system that has been greatly enhanced since Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 hijackers used box cutters to take over four jets. Box cutters and bleach are now are among the items that cannot be carried onto planes.

The TSA was created after the attacks, with the goal of replacing privately employed airport security workers with better-trained and higher-paid government employees.

Discovery of the items last week aboard Southwest planes that landed in New Orleans and Houston triggered stepped-up inspections of the entire U.S. commercial air fleet -- roughly 7,000 planes. But after consulting with the FBI, the TSA rescinded the inspection order and no other suspicious bags were found.

Guilford is a Quaker college with a history of pacifism and civil disobedience that dates to the Civil War. Heatwole is not a Quaker, but shares many of the tenets of their religion, including a belief in pacifism, according to a February 2002 interview with The Guilfordian, the campus newspaper.