A Nigerian man who said he was an agent for al-Qaida tried to blowup a Northwest Airlines plane Friday as it was preparing to land inDetroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded likefirecrackers rushed to subdue him, the passengers and federal officialssaid.
Flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard was about20 minutes from the airport when passengers heard popping noises,witnesses said. At least one person climbed over others and jumped onthe man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to the front of theplane with his pants cut off and his legs burned, a passenger said. Lawenforcement officials said the burns indicated the explosive wasstrapped to his legs.
One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mixof powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said Peter Smith, atraveler from the Netherlands. “First there was a pop, and then (there)was smoke.”
Smith said a passenger sitting opposite the man climbed over people,went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. Syed Jafri,another passenger, said he saw a glow and smelled smoke. Then, he said,“a young man behind me jumped on him.”
“Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic,” said Jafri. Smith said the heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.
The White House said it believed it was an attempted act ofterrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed onairline travel. It did not specify what those were.
The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy atrans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, butwas subdued by other passengers. Reid is serving a life sentence.
Law enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday’sattempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. One law enforcementofficial said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida todetonate the plane over U.S. soil, but other law enforcement officialscautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and saidthe man may have been acting independently — inspired but notspecifically trained or ordered by terror groups.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
Another law enforcement official, also speaking on condition ofanonymity in order to discuss the case, said Mutallab’s name hadsurfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but not tothe extent that he was placed on a watch list or a no-fly list.
Mutallab was being questioned Friday evening. An intelligenceofficial said the Nigerian passenger was being held and treated in anAnn Arbor, Mich., hospital. One passenger was taken to the Universityof Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, hospital spokeswoman TracyJustice said. She referred all inquiries to the FBI.
The trauma burn center at the hospital said it did not have Abdul Mutallab in its unit.Flight 253 began in Nigeria and went throughAmsterdam en route to Detroit, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., theranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
A spokeswoman for police at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdamdeclined comment about the case or about security procedures at theairport for Flight 253. Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest witha heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to NorthAmerica, strictly enforces European security regulations including onlyallowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placedinside clear plastic bags.
A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, AkinOlunkunle, said all passengers and their luggage are screened beforeboarding international flights. He also said the airport in Lagoscleared a U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit in November.
“We had a pass mark,” spokesman Akin Olukunle said. “We actually are up to standards in all senses.”
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the flight until it wason final approach to Detroit, said Federal Aviation Administrationspokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. That is when the pilot declared anemergency, she said. The flight landed at 12:01 p.m. EST, she said.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which bought Northwest last year, said that“upon approach to Detroit, a passenger caused a disturbance.” It saidthe passenger was subdued immediately and the crew asked that lawenforcement officials meet the flight.
“The passenger was taken into custody and questioned by law enforcement authorities,” the airline said.
According to the airline, eight flight attendants and three pilots were on board.
Smith said while he was leaving the plane, he looked at where theman had been sitting and saw a pillow that seemed to have been burned.Melinda Dennis, who was seated in the front row of the plane, said theman involved was brought to the front row and seated near her. She saidhis legs appeared to be badly burned and his pants were cut off. Shesaid he was taken off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher.
President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed itwith security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoringthe situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot inHawaii.
Federal officials said there would be heightened security for bothdomestic and international flights at airports across the country, butthe intensified levels would likely be “layered,” differing fromlocation to location depending on alerts, security concerns and otherfactors.
Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, morebomb-sniffing dog and officer units and behavioral-detectionspecialists at some airports, but there will also be unspecified lessvisible precautions as well, officials said.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligencenote on Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season, whichwas obtained by The Associated Press. At the time, officials said theyhad no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or otherterrorist groups.
In 2003, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden purportedly marked Nigeriafor liberation in a recording posted on the Internet, calling onMuslims in the oil-rich country to rise up against one of the “regimeswho are slaves of America.” But links to al-Qaida remained rare, thoughsecurity forces claimed to break up such a linked terror cell inNovember 2007.
Delta, which is days away from obtaining a single operatingcertificate from the FAA to fully integrate itself and Northwest, hasbeen hosting military personnel who have to travel over the holidays ina lounge at the Detroit airport.
SOURCE: ap.org
Topic: Nigerian Attempts To Blow Up American Plane (Read 226 times)
June 07, 2009, 10:30:30 PM
