LOS ANGELES (YBH.ME) - On December 25, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23 year old Nigerian national living as a student in London, managed to carry and set off an explosive device aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253, originating from Amsterdam and bound for Detroit. The FBI is ruling it an attempted terrorist attack. 290 people were aboard the flight.
Airline Allows Potential Bomber Aboard
The Justice Department alleged in court documents that Abdulmutallab’s smuggled device contained the explosive PETN. Abdulmutallab reportedly started a fire in his seat which was spotted by a fellow passenger, who put the flames out with his bare hands while calling for water. Flight attendants arrived with fire extinguishers. When asked what he had, the suspect stated “an explosive device.”
The flames were extinguished, and Abdulmutallab was subdued by a passenger, then locked in the lavatory for 20 minutes, his legs badly burned. The pilots radioed for, and received clearance for, an emergency landing.
Abdulmutallab’s own father, a recently retired top executive with Nigeria’s First Bank, had reported his son’s potential alliance with Al Qaeda back in November. The young man was put on an international watch list, but reports vary as to whether he was actually on the “do not fly” list. The explosive was apparently sewn into his underwear by Yemeni operatives specializing in the smuggling of such banned materials.
