Delta plane nearly blown up

[C.Foo 3]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A man who attempted to light an explosive aboard a US airplane as it landed in Detroit on a flight from Amsterdam told investigators he was affiliated with Al-Qaeda, US media reported Friday.

 

CNN, citing a federal bulletin, said the man told investigators he had acquired the explosive in Yemen, along with instructions as to when it should be used.

 

President Barack Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, was notified about the incident and held a conference call with his national security team, the White House said.

Sandra Berchtold, an FBI spokeswoman in Detroit, told AFP the incident was under investigation.

 

The incident unfolded around noon local time (1700 GMT) aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253, which was carrying 278 passengers from Amsterdam.

A spokeswoman for Northwest's parent company Delta told AFP the man tried to light what appeared to be firecrackers.

 

"A passenger caused a disturbance on board by igniting some firecrackers," said Susan Elliott.

 

"The passenger was immediately subdued and Delta is cooperating with authorities in the investigation," she added

 

 

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6623004/us-airplane-incident-was-attempted-terror-attack-us-media/

[Waiping 12]

Gosh! A lapse of security, perhaps?

[KK Lee 5]

After failed attempt by Richard Reid, the British “shoe-bomber”, travellers need to remove shoes for X-ray.

 

Since the suspect (Nigerian, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23) had explosive powder taped to his leg and used a syringe of chemicals to detonate the powder. Guess travellers need to drop their trousers for inspection before body scanner is available?

 

[JuliusWong 0]

As if the current security check is not bothersome enough, these 'idiots' are making things difficult for others. The current security rules are just about to be relaxed!!! No thanks to the would-be bomber!!!

 

I foresee in future we cannot bring any carry-on and security will conduct strip search on each individuals!! Imagine all the queues in airports and human right lawsuits??!! But then again its the most severe scenario we are talking about.

[Seth K 3]

What happened in Amsterdam?

[JuliusWong 0]

What happened in Amsterdam?

 

http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1261806904.html

[C.Foo 3]

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - "I just jumped, I didn't think," said Dutchman Jasper Schuringa, who has emerged as a Christmas Day hero for his impulsive smackdown of a terror suspect who tried to blow up a US-bound airliner.

 

Witnesses and authorities have praised passengers and crew for banding together to stop the suspect, identified by US authorities as Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23.

 

The suspect failed to fully detonate an incendiary device containing "a high explosive" that he managed to sneak past airport security and started to ignite as the jet approached Detroit.

 

But if Schuringa's interview with CNN is any indication, he's the one who came to the rescue of the plane's 277 other passengers and 11 crew.

 

"I basically reacted directly," a relaxed-looking Schuringa, clad in a gray T-shirt and with one of his hands and wrists bandaged, told the news network Saturday.

 

"When I saw the suspect he was getting on fire and I freaked of course, and without any hesitation jumped over the seats and jumped to the suspect because I was thinking, like, he's trying to blow up the plane."

 

Schuringa was seated on the right of the Northwest Airlines Airbus 330, a few rows behind Abdulmutallab who was in a window seat on the left. He said he "reacted on a bang," and when smoke and flames started billowing from the suspect's lap he clamored over fellow passengers and tackled him.

 

"When you hear a pop on a plane, you're awake, trust me. So I just jumped, I didn't think, and I just went, went over there and tried to save the plane, I guess."

 

As terrified passengers screamed and the cabin filled with smoke, the level-headed Schuringa and alert crew dragged the suspect to the front and contained him, while others put out the mini-blaze with a fire extinguisher.

 

"We took him to first class and there we stripped him and contained him with handcuffs and made sure he had no more weapons or bombs on him."

 

The Dutchman, who US media reported was a video director and producer, said that "absolutely nothing" about Abdulmutallab suggested he would try anything sinister.

 

"He looked like a normal guy," he said. "It was just hard to believe that he was actually going to, trying to blow up this plane."

 

Schuringa's effort is the latest act of mid-air bravery in the United States, some of which has reached iconic status.

 

For many the epitome of aviation heroism is represented by Chesley Sullenberger, the unflappable captain who landed his crippled US Airways jet in the Hudson River last January, saving everyone aboard.

 

For others it is the efforts of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked on September 11, 2001.

 

Passengers on that flight, having learned of earlier attacks that fateful day on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, mounted an assault to try and overpower the hijackers. The jet plowed into a Pennsylvania field, killing all aboard, and passengers were lauded for stopping what experts conclude was a terrorist attack in the making.

 

Senior US politicians, while not mentioning Schuringa by name, hailed the passengers and crew on the Christmas Day flight who apprehended the would-be Detroit airline bomber.

 

"We are forever indebted to the heroic passengers and flight attendants who sought to subdue the suspect," said Bennie Thompson, chairman of the homeland security committee in the House of Representatives.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement that she was "grateful to the passengers and crew aboard Northwest Flight 253 who reacted quickly and heroically to an incident that could have had tragic results."

 

Several witnesses said a passenger tackled Abdulmutallab and helped drag him to the front of the plane.

 

Schuringa said he burned his hands as he struggled to get the burning material out from between Abdulmutallab's legs.

 

"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away," said Schuringa, described by the New York Daily News as a Dutch video producer and director from Amsterdam.

 

"I had to... damp the fire, because it was growing, and fire on a plane is not good."

 

 

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6624189/dutch-hero-reacted-on-a-bang-to-subdue-suspect/

[mokhzani 0]

Am I missing something here. Almost all the TV news and papers mentioned it as Northwest Airlines but the aircraft is definitely a Delta?

[KC Sim 2]

Although painted in Delta's livery as a result of the merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines, this aircraft was operating under a Northwest Airlines flightcode.

 

News report now mentioned that the bomber's father actually alerted US embassy officials in Lagos about his son's suspicious links to terrorist groups . . .

 

. . . but obviously US officials paid little or no heed to this. They even issued him a visa to travel to the United States - and other reports suggested that he had only a one-way ticket to the US. What happened to requiring a return ticket before one could be accepted on the US-bound flight?

 

Obviously there has been some kind of oversight by US' homeland security folks . . . and obviously all travellers now pay the price by being more stringently checked (again). And only recently, aviation authorities were talking about relaxing the restrictions on liquids and gels - now this seems a distant dream again.

 

How is it when the authorities fail, travellers end up paying the price?

 

KC Sim

[Denny Yen 0]

On the next day, NRT and TPE imposed double-security checks on passengers bound for US (all hand-carry bags are searched individually, body search, belts + shoes off).

 

Amazingly, the suspect's father warned the embassies of 3 countries (US, UK and Spain)...only UK put him on black-list.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Denny Yen

[KK Lee 5]

It was reported; Abdulmutallab was granted a two-year tourist visa by the U.S. Embassy in London in June 2008. He used the visa to travel previously to the United States at least twice, officials said.

 

According to US Homeland Security current profiling, the suspect is not red flagged. If they are to revise profiling, more people (mostly mistaken identity) will be on ‘no fly list’ to the U.S.

 

Believe US Homeland Security receive hundreds of threat reports everyday and 99+% of them are low risks. Like all systems, nothing is perfect and there will be a failure eventually. Any increased in security incur cost and inconvenience to the public. The best they could do is to deter and reduce the risk to acceptable level.

 

However, new security measures imposed are;

In the final hour before landing in the US, passengers are now banned from standing up, using toilets and holding blankets

 

In-flight entertainment is being withdrawn where it includes maps of the plane’s location, for fear bombers will be able to pinpoint targets

 

[Kee Hooi Yen 0]

I hope in future air travellers are not required to be contained in cages onboard !

[KK Lee 5]

I hope in future air travellers are not required to be contained in cages onboard !

 

They may sedate pax until landing, more civilize and save on meals, drink, entertainment, crews, etc.

 

[Radzi 2]

They may sedate pax until landing, more civilize and save on meals, drink, entertainment, crews, etc.

 

 

Only if passengers can be put into suspended animation in a room outside the aircraft, then loaded in containers together with the cargo and revived in another special room once at the destination.... No need for seats, cabin crew, toilet or IFE. No security problem whatsoever. All we will need is 2 pilots.

 

Science fiction?

[Mushrif A 3]

Only if passengers can be put into suspended animation in a room outside the aircraft, then loaded in containers together with the cargo and revived in another special room once at the destination.... No need for seats, cabin crew, toilet or IFE. No security problem whatsoever. All we will need is 2 pilots.

 

Science fiction?

 

If the technology exists to do all that, pilots are likely to be redundant as well.

[BC Tam 2]

However, new security measures imposed are;

In the final hour before landing in the US, passengers are now banned from standing up, using toilets and holding blankets

You gotta be kidding right ?!

Even CCB SOP did not infringe upon human rights to that extreme

[KK Lee 5]

You gotta be kidding right ?!

Even CCB SOP did not infringe upon human rights to that extreme

 

No kidding mate. They are now even;

- asked pax to switch on camera to prove it was not an explosive device.

- monitor the length of time pax spending in the toilet

- pilots and flight crews were told not to make comments about cities or landmarks below the flight path.

- could not use a pillow during the last hour of flight.

- have air marshal onboard flights to the US.

 

Believe millimeter wave scanner will become standard instrument in most if not all major airports. Bet the officer monitoring the images will be the most sort after job in the security department. Wonder when will celebrities under clothing images will be leaked on the internet?

 

Edited December 29, 2009 by KK Lee

[Tony 1]

Only if passengers can be put into suspended animation in a room outside the aircraft, then loaded in containers together with the cargo and revived in another special room once at the destination.... No need for seats, cabin crew, toilet or IFE. No security problem whatsoever. All we will need is 2 pilots.

 

Science fiction?

 

Way to go, Capt Radzi!

Exactly what we were discussing, back in my previous job, how we could grow the cargo industry... Move pax into the cargo line! Volume and revenue will definitely skyrocket.

[KK Lee 5]

EU is paying US$190,000 for body scanner. Let see how much MAB will be paying.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/world/europe/09europe.html?ref=world