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Northwest Airlines Flight 253

An Airbus A330 similar to the one involved in the Flight 253 incident.
Date	December 25, 2009
Summary	Failed bombing with pentaerythritol tetranitrate
Site	Romulus, Michigan, U.S. 42°12′29″N 83°21′22″W / 42.208°N 83.356°W / 42.208; -83.356
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A330-323E
Operator	Northwest Airlines
Registration	N820NWdisaster
Flight origin	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Destination	Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Passengers	278
Crew	11
Fatalities	0
Injuries	2 victims and 1 bomber
Survivors	289 (all)

Northwest Airlines Flight 253 is a flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Metro Airport in Detroit, Michigan, that was targeted in a failed al-Qaeda bombing attempt on Christmas Day, December 25, 2009. The incident occurred as the plane was on its final descent, 20 minutes from landing and with 290 people on board. After the attempt failed, the plane landed in Detroit without any fatalities. The airplane was a Delta Air Lines liveried (Northwest Airlines operated) Airbus A330-323E.

The suspected bomber was passenger Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian. He attempted to detonate plastic explosives concealed in his underwear. They failed to detonate properly, resulting only in flames and firecracker-like popping sounds. A Dutch passenger, Jasper Schuringa, tackled and restrained him as others put out the fire. Abdulmutallab was handcuffed while the pilot made an emergency landing. Three people were injured—the bomber, Schuringa, and another passenger.

The suspect was arrested and spent two days in a hospital before being transferred to a federal prison to await trial on charges of attempting to blow up the plane. On December 26, investigators said the suspect told them that al-Qaeda had instructed him and provided the bomb, and on December 28 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said it was responsible for the failed attack. Abdulmutallab is to be tried in federal court, and faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

As of August 2009, Abdulmutallab had been studying in Yemen. He cut off contact with his family that October, and his worried father reported his disappearance and "extreme religious views" to a U.S. embassy in Nigeria on November 17. On December 24 he entered Nigeria, and with a valid U.S. visa and a round-trip ticket from Lagos to Detroit, he passed all the normal airport security checks, transferring planes at Schiphol onto Flight 253.

As a result of his father's warning, Abdulmutallab's name had been added to the U.S.'s central international terrorist database before the attack, but not to more restrictive watchlists designed to prevent terrorists from boarding aircraft. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, stated shortly after the terrorist attack, that the "The system worked". U.S. President Barack Obama described the U.S.'s failure to prevent the bombing attempt as "totally unacceptable," and ordered an investigation. Several reports linked the suspect to Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based senior al-Qaeda figure who was also linked to the Fort Hood shooter and three of the 9/11 hijackers. Reports also indicated the U.S. had received intelligence regarding a planned attack by a Yemeni-based Nigerian man. The explosive used was of the same type used by al-Qaeda "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid.

Incident

On Christmas Eve, December 24, 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man, arrived at Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, Nigeria. He had purchased his $2,831 Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit round-trip ticket with cash eight days earlier at the KLM office in Accra, Ghana, with a January 8, 2010, return date. He left Lagos that evening at 11 pm aboard KLM Flight 588, a Boeing 777 bound for Schiphol Airport (AMS) in Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam, he may have been able to check in without a passport with the help of an unknown "well dressed" man, who reportedly asked airline employees at Schiphol if Abdulmutallab could board Flight 253 without a passport, suggesting that Abdulmutallab was a "refugee from Sudan." This claim is disputed by Dutch authorities, who say that Abdulmutallab presented a valid Nigerian passport and current U.S. visa. With only carry-on luggage, he left Amsterdam around 8:45 am local time on a Northwest Airlines Airbus A330-300 twinjet, with 279 passengers, 8 flight attendants, and 3 pilots aboard. The plane was scheduled to arrive in Detroit at 11:40 am EST, and was painted in Delta Air Lines' livery, as Northwest is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta.

Witnesses reported that as the plane approached Detroit, a passenger, later identified as Abdulmutallab, went into the plane's bathroom for about 20 minutes. After returning to his seat at 19A (near the fuel tanks and wing, and against the skin of the plane), he complained that he had an upset stomach. He was then seen pulling a blanket over himself.

About 20 minutes before the plane landed, while flying over Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada, he secretly ignited a small explosive device consisting of a mix of plastic explosive powder and liquid acid. He apparently had a packet of the plastic explosive sewn to his underwear, and used a syringe containing liquid acid to cause a chemical reaction. While there was an explosion and fire, the device failed to detonate properly. Passengers heard popping noises resembling firecrackers, smelled an odor, and saw the suspect's trouser leg and the wall of the plane on fire. A passenger said: "there was smoke and screaming and flames. It was scary."

While there were not any air marshals on the flight, several passengers and crew noticed the attack. A passenger seated on the far side of the same row, Jasper Schuringa from the Netherlands, tackled and overpowered the suspect. Schuringa saw the suspect's trousers were open, and that he was holding a burning object between his legs. "I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away," said Schuringa, who suffered burns to his hands. Meanwhile, flight attendants extinguished the fire with a fire extinguisher and blankets, and a passenger removed the partially melted, smoking syringe from the suspect's hand.

Schuringa grabbed the suspect, and pulled him to the front of the plane. A passenger reported that the suspect, though burned "quite severely" on his leg, seemed "very calm," and like a "normal individual." Schuringa stripped off the suspect's clothes to check for other explosives, and a crew member helped handcuff the suspect. "He was staring into nothing," Schuringa said. Passengers applauded as Schuringa walked back to his seat.

The suspect was isolated from other passengers until after the plane landed. A flight attendant asked the suspect what he had in his pocket, and the suspect replied: "Explosive device."

When the attack triggered a fire indicator light within the cockpit, the pilot requested rescue and law enforcement. The incident was initially declared an in-flight emergency, before being deemed an attempted terrorist attack by the White House. The plane made an emergency landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in the Downriver Detroit community of Romulus, Michigan, just before 1 pm local time. The airport is about 20 miles southwest of Detroit and the adjacent international border.

Nick Rapagna, the secretary treasurer of the Canadian division of the Airline Pilots Association, said that the crew members decided to land in Detroit because the aircraft was in the process of descending for a landing in Detroit, where a Northwest crew base and Northwest infrastructure were located. Kevin Psutka, president of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, opined that many airports in southern Ontario would have had difficulty accepting an aircraft the size of the Airbus A330, and that if the plane had landed in Canada, the crew would have had to go to "Toronto or maybe London, Ontario."

While the plane itself suffered relatively little damage, the suspect suffered third-degree burns and two other passengers were injured. When the plane landed, the suspect was handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, and taken into custody for questioning and treatment of his injuries in a secured room of the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Schuringa was also taken to the hospital. One other passenger incurred minor injuries.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents arrived at the airport after the plane landed. The aircraft was moved to a remote area so authorities could re-screen the plane, the passengers, and the baggage on-board. A bomb-defusing robot was first used to board the plane, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) interviewed all passengers. Another passenger from the flight was temporarily placed in handcuffs, searched, and released after a dog alerted officers to his carry-on luggage.

Explosives

The substance that the suspect tried to detonate was reportedly more than Template:G to oz of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a crystaline powder that is often the active ingredient of plastic explosives. It is among the most powerful of explosives, in the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. The powder was analyzed by the FBI at Quantico, and an FBI affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Michigan reflected that preliminary findings indicated that the device contained PETN. The authorities also found the remains of the syringe. The suspect apparently carried the PETN onto the plane in a six-inch-long soft plastic container, possibly a condom, attached to his underwear. However, much of the container was lost in the fire. ABC News cited a government test indicating that Template:G to oz of PETN can blow a hole in the side of an airliner, and posted photos of the remains of Abdulmutallab's underwear and syringe.

Al-Qaeda member Richard Reid (the "Shoe Bomber") tried to detonate 50 grams of the same explosive in his shoes during an American Airlines flight on December 22, 2001. This attack was near the eighth anniversary of Reid's attempt. In addition, in August 2009, an al-Qaeda bomber from Yemen with PETN hidden in his anal cavity blew himself up near the Saudi deputy Interior Minister in charge of counter-terrorism, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef.

Umar Abdulmutallab

This section may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. (January 2010)

The suspect is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He is the youngest of 16 children of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab; one of the richest men in Africa—and the prominent former Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Economic Development, and Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. His mother, who is from Yemen, is the second of his father's two wives. Abdulmutallab was raised initially in Kaduna, in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north.

In high school at the British International School in Lomé, Togo, Abdulmutallab was known as a devout Muslim and for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates. He visited the U.S. for the first time in 2004. Abdulmutallab was also in Yemen for a year from 2004-05, taking a course at the San'a Institute for the Arabic Language in Sana'a.

He began his studies at University College London in September 2005, where he was president of the Islamic Society in 2006 and 2007, studied Engineering with Business Finance, and earned a degree in mechanical engineering in June 2008. During those years he “crossed the radar screen” of MI5, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, for radical links and “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists (though none of the information was passed to American officials). His last known address is a ₤4 million apartment on Mansfield Street, Central London, close to Oxford Street and near the college. It was searched by the London Metropolitan Police after the attack.

On June 12, 2008, Abdulmutallab applied for and received from the U.S. consulate in London a U.S. multiple-entry visa, valid to June 12, 2010, with which he visited Houston, Texas, from August 1–17, 2008.

From January until July 2009, he attended a master's of international business degree program at University of Wollongong in Dubai.

In May 2009 Abdulmutallab tried to return to Britain, ostensibly for a six-month "life coaching" program at what the British authorities concluded was a fictitious school; accordingly, his visa application was denied by the United Kingdom Border Agency. His name was placed on a UK Home Office security watch list, which BBC News said meant he could not come into the UK, though he could pass through the country in transit and was not permanently banned; the UK did not share the information with other countries.

Abdulmutallab's father agreed in July 2009 to his request to study Arabic at the San'a Institute for the Arabic Language in Yemen from August to September 2009, though he apparently left the Institute after a month while remaining in-country. His family became concerned in August 2009 when he called them to say he had dropped the course, but was remaining there. He texted his father: "I've found a new religion, the real Islam", "You should just forget about me, I'm never coming back", and "Forgive me for any wrongdoing, I am no longer your child". The Washington Post reported that several days later he sent a text message to his family, severing all ties with them. The school obtained an exit visa for him and on September 21 arranged for a car that took him to the airport; but the school's director said: "After that, we never saw him again, and apparently he did not leave Yemen".

The family last had contact with Abdulmutallab in October 2009, at which time he was still in Yemen. Yemeni officials said that he was in Yemen from early August 2009, overstayed his student visa (which was valid through September 21), and left Yemen on December 7 (flying to Ethiopia, and then a few days later to Ghana).

His father made a report to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 19 regarding his son's "extreme religious views", and told the embassy that Abdulmutallab might be in Yemen. Acting on the report, the suspect's name was added in November 2009 to the US's 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a database of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. It was not added, however, to the FBI's 400,000-name Terrorist Screening Database, the terror watch list that feeds both the 14,000-name Secondary Screening Selectee list and the US's 4,000-name No Fly List. Abdulmutallab's name had come to the attention of intelligence officials many months before that, but no "derogatory information" was recorded about him. A Congressional official said that Abdulmutallab's name appeared in US reports reflecting that he had connections to both al-Qaeda and Yemen.

Two days after the attack, Abdulmutallab was released from the hospital in which he had been treated for burns sustained during the attempted bombing. He is in Federal Correctional Institution, Milan, a federal prison in Milan, Michigan.

Ties to Anwar al-Awlaki

A number of sources reported ties and communications between Abdulmutallab and Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim lecturer and spiritual leader who has been accused of being a senior al-Qaeda talent recruiter and motivator linked to various terrorists. Al-Awlaki, previously an imam in the U.S. who more recently lived in Yemen, also has links to three of the 9/11 hijackers, the 2005 London subway bombers, a 2006 Toronto terror cell, a 2007 plot to attack Fort Dix, and the 2009 suspected Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan.

While al-Awlaki was banned from entering England in 2006, he spoke on at least seven occasions at five different venues around Britain via video-link in 2007-09. He gave a number of video-link lectures at the East London Mosque during this period, one to Islamic student societies at the University of Westminster in September 2008, one at an arts centre in East London in April 2009 (after Tower Hamlets council gave its approval), one to worshippers at the Al Huda Mosque in Bradford, and one to an event staged by the Cageprisoners organisation in September 2008 at the Wandsworth Civic Suite, in south London. His videos, which discuss his Islamist theories, have circulated in England.

With a blog and a Facebook page, he has been described as the "bin Laden of the internet."

Representative Pete Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the day of the attack that officials in the Obama administration and officials with access to law enforcement information told him "there are reports had contact .... The question we'll have to raise is was this imam in Yemen influential enough to get some people to attack the U.S. again."

Hoekstra added in an interview: "The suspicion is ... that had contact with al-Awlaki. The belief is this is a stronger connection with al-Awlaki" than Hasan had. Hoekstra later said that credible sources told him Abdulmutallab "most likely" has ties with al-Awlaki.

The Sunday Times has established that Abdulmutallab first met al-Awlaki in 2005 in Yemen while he was studying Arabic.

Fox News reported that evidence collected during searches of "flats or apartments of interest" connected to Abdulmutallab in London showed that he was a "big fan" of al-Awlaki, as web traffic showed he followed Awlaki's blog and website. CBS News and The Daily Telegraph reported that Abdulmutallab was at a talk by al-Awlaki at the East London Mosque (which al-Awlaki may have attended by video teleconference). The two are "thought to have met" in London, according to The Daily Mail.

University of Oxford historian, and professor of international relations, Mark Almond wrote that the suspect was "on American security watch-lists because of his links with ... Al-Awlaki".

CBS News said that the two were communicating in the months before the bombing attempt, and sources say that at a minimum al-Awlaki was providing spiritual support. The Washington Post reported that according to federal sources, over the year prior to the attack, Abdulmutallab intensified electronic communications with al-Awlaki. The paper also reported that one government source described intercepted "voice-to-voice communication" between the two during the fall of 2009, saying that al-Awlaki "was in some way involved in facilitating 's transportation or trip through Yemen. It could be training, a host of things."

The Times reported that Abdulmutallab told the FBI that al-Awlaki was one of his trainers when he underwent al-Qaeda training in remote camps in Yemen, and that there were "informed reports" that Abdulmutallab met al-Awlaki during his final weeks of training and indoctrination prior to the attack. The Los Angeles Times reported that according to a U.S. intelligence official: "intercepts and other information" point to connections between the two.

"Some of the information ... comes from Abdulmutallab, who ... said that he met with al-Awlaki and senior al-Qaeda members during an extended trip to Yemen this year, and that the cleric was involved in some elements of planning or preparing the attack and in providing religious justification for it. Other intelligence linking the two became apparent after the attempted bombing, including communications intercepted by the National Security Agency indicating that the cleric was meeting with "a Nigerian" in preparation for some kind of operation."

Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs, Rashad Mohammed al-Alimi, said Yemeni investigators believe the suspect traveled in October to Shabwa, where he met with suspected al-Qaida members in a house built by al-Awlaki and used by al-Awlaki to hold theological sessions, and was trained and equipped with his explosives. "If he went to Shabwa, for sure he would have met Anwar al-Awlaki," al-Alimi said. Al-Alimi also said he believed al-Awlaki is alive. And Abdul Elah al-Shaya, a Yemeni journalist, said a healthy al-Awlaki called him on December 28 and said that the Yemeni government's claims as to his death were "lies". Shaya declined to comment as to whether al-Awlaki had told him about any contacts he may have had with Abdulmutallab. According to Gregory Johnsen, a Yemeni expert at Princeton University, Shaya is generally reliable.

Al-Qaeda involvement

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) indicated that it was responsible for the attempted bombing, and said that the attack during "their (Christians) celebration of the Christmas holidays" was to "avenge U.S. attacks on the militants in Yemen". The NEFA Foundation posted al-Qaeda's statement.

While in custody, Abdulmutallab told authorities he had been directed by al-Qaeda. He said he had obtained the device in Yemen, along with instructions from al-Qaeda as to how to use it and to detonate it when the plane was over U.S. soil. Abdulmutallab said he had contacted al-Qaeda through a radical Yemeni imam (who according to The New York Times on December 26 was not believed to be al-Awlaki) whom he had reached through the internet. The New York Times reported on December 25 that a counter-terrorism official had told them Abdulmutallab's claim "may have been aspirational". But U.S. Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment, said the following day that a federal official briefed lawmakers about "strong suggestions of a Yemen-al Qaeda connection" with the suspect.

In a reaction to the indications that the suspect was equipped and dispatched to attack the U.S. by a branch of al-Qaeda in Yemen, it was suggested that the U.S. should launch a military offensive against the alleged terrorists' sanctuary. Already before the aborted attack, Yemeni forces equipped with U.S. weapons and intelligence had carried out two major raids against AQAP. A day before the actual attack on Flight 253 the group might have been beheaded by an airstrike on a meeting that it was thought may have been attended by AQAP's two top leaders, as well as al-Awalaki..

Reactions and investigations

Governments

The U.S. investigation into the incident is being managed by the FBI. Among other questions, it is attempting to answer the following: what training did Abdulmutallab receive, who else (if anyone) was in the training program, are others preparing to launch similar attacks, was the attack was part of a larger (possibly worldwide) plot, was it a test run, who assisted him, who gave him the chemicals, who sewed the explosives in his underwear, who further radicalized him, who sent him on his way, and how was he able to smuggle the explosives past airport security. The FBI and the Dutch military police are also following up on testimony by witnesses Kurt and Lori Haskell that an accomplice may have helped Abdulmutallab board the plane in Amsterdam, attempting to negotiate with airline officials to get Abdulmutallab on the plane without presenting a passport.

President Barack Obama was notified of the incident by an aide while on a vacation in Kailua, Hawaii, and spoke with officials from the Department of Homeland Security. The White House said that Obama was actively monitoring the situation, and had instructed that all appropriate measures be taken. The White House called the attack an act of terrorism. However, Attorney General Eric Holder has not declared the incident an official terrorist act. Representative Hoekstra said that Detroit in particular may not have specifically been singled out for the attack, but rather that the focus may have simply been to attack a destination with many international travelers. In addition, it was suggested that it is possible that the attack was a test to see if such materials could pass through screening, and how much damage the blast would cause.

The U.S. is examining what information it had before the attack, why its National Counterterrorism Center did not put together the warning from Abdulmutallab's father and intercepts of conversations among Yemeni al-Qaida leaders about a "Nigerian" to be used for an attack (months before the attack), and why the suspect's U.S. visa was not revoked after his father's warning.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the UK would take "whatever action was necessary" in response to the attempted bombing. The day after the attack, British police sealed off Mansfield Street, in Marylebone, London, where the suspect had reportedly lived in a family-owned flat.

A Dutch military police spokesperson said that Abdulmutallab did not go through passport control at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, where large numbers of passengers are processed en-route to North America from Africa, and the Dutch counter-terrorism agency NCTb said that it had started a probe into where the suspect originated. A preliminary investigation, however, found no security lapses, and despite being listed as having a potential terrorism connection, the suspect had a valid U.S. visa. Dutch officials also said that they will use 3D full-body scanning x-ray technology on flights departing to the U.S. Body scanners are being implemented despite concerns from privacy advocates. Dutch officials have said that security must take priority over the privacy of the individuals being scanned. The developer of the technology has said that the scanned imagery does not compromise the privacy of individuals, as the resolution of the imagery is too low to display the body in anatomical detail; however, it would certainly detect non-metallic objects under clothing, such as powdered explosives.

Members of the Second Chamber (Lower House) of the Dutch parliament demanded an explanation from Minister of Justice Hirsch Ballin, asking how the suspect managed to smuggle explosives on board, despite the reportedly strict security measures at Schiphol Airport.

The incident raised concern regarding security procedures at Nigeria's major international airports in Lagos and Abuja, where tests for explosive materials are not conducted on carry-on baggage and shoes, and where bags are allowed to pass quickly through x-ray scanners. In response to strong international criticism, Nigerian civil aviation officer Harold Demuran announced that Nigeria will also set up full-body scanning x-ray machines in Nigerian airports.

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines, which owns Northwest, said that its Detroit group did not handle security for the flight, and released a statement calling the incident a "disturbance," and saying that Delta was "cooperating fully with authorities".

Jasper Schuringa

Jasper Schuringa stopped the attack, and was burned in the process. He is a resident in Amsterdam, and was born in 1971. Schuringa is a graduate of Leiden University, Leiden. He is a film director of low-budget Dutch films for an Amsterdam-based media company, and was the assistant director for National Lampoon's Teed Off Too.

Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos phoned Schuringa on behalf of the Dutch government on the day after the attack, and conveyed the government's compliments and gratitude for Schuringa's part in overpowering the suspect. Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders called Schuringa "a national hero" who "deserves a royal honor", which Wilders said he would ask the Dutch government to award. . According to the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, even Queen Beatrix expressed her feelings of gratitude towards Schuringa, though it wasn't made public how she had done this.

Criminal charges

On December 26, a criminal complaint was filed against Abdulmutallab in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by Theodore James Peissig, an FBI special agent, charging Abdulmutallab with placing a destructive device in proximity to and attempting to destroy a U.S. civil aircraft. The U.S. Attorney's Office assigned federal prosecutors Jonathan Tukel, chief of the counter-terrorism unit, and Eric Straus, former chief of the same unit, to the case. Abdulmutallab was arraigned and officially charged by U.S. District Court Judge Paul D. Borman later the same day at the University of Michigan Hospital. Based upon these charges, Abdulmutallab faces up to 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.

Borman set a detention hearing for January 8, 2010, and Abdulmutallab was assigned public defenders Miriam Seifer and Jill Price.

Aftermath

Effect on travel

The U.S. government did not raise the Homeland Security Advisory System terrorist threat level, orange at the time (high risk of terrorist attacks), following the attack. However, the Department of Homeland Security said that additional security measures would be in place for the remainder of the Christmas travel period. The TSA detailed several of the measures, including a restriction on movement and access to personal items during the last hour of flight for all planes entering U.S. airspace. The TSA also said that there would be more officers and security dogs at airports.

British Airways said that passengers flying to the U.S. would only be permitted one carry-on item. Other European countries increased baggage screening, pat-down searches, and random searches for passengers traveling to the U.S. A spokesperson for the Dutch airport used by the attacker said that heightened security would be in place for "an indefinite period". On December 28 Transport Canada announced that for several days it will not allow passengers flying to the U.S. from Canada a carry-on bag, with some exceptions (including small purses, laptop computers, and musical instruments).

On December 27, a Lufthansa flight headed for Detroit was diverted to Iceland when it was discovered to be carrying a bag from a passenger who was not on the plane. In addition, a passenger on another flight (Baltimore to New York) was detained when a firecracker was discovered in the seat he had used.

December 27, 2009 incident

On December 27, 2009, the crew of Flight 253 requested emergency assistance with a Nigerian passenger who they said had become "verbally disruptive". The crew questioned the passenger after other passengers expressed concern that he had been in the bathroom for over an hour. It was later determined that the man was a businessman who had fallen ill from food poisoning during the flight, and did not pose any security risk.

U.S. political fallout

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano initially said that "the system had worked" in preventing the attack. Several days later, however, they retracted the statement, saying that the system had in fact "failed miserably." According to Napolitano, her initial statement had referred to the passenger response to the attack, rather than the security failures that allowed the attack to happen. On December 29, four days after the attack, Obama issued a statement to the effect that Abdulmutallab's ability to board the aircraft was the result of inadequate sharing of information among U.S. government agencies, calling the situation "totally unacceptable." He ordered that a report be delivered before January 1 containing details as to how some government agencies had failed to share or highlight potentially relevant information about the suspect before he allegedly tried to blow up the airliner..

The day after the attack, the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee both announced that they would hold hearings in January 2010 to investigate how the device passed through security, and whether further restrictions should be placed on air travel; the Senate hearings will begin on January 21.

On December 31, 2009, President Obama was briefed on the security failures that led to the incident. Among the documents were statements that information about the suspect had failed to cross agency lines, and that the failures to communicate within the US government had led to the threat posed by Abdulmutallab not being known by certain agencies until the attack. Obama said that he would study the documents for three days, and will meet with security chiefs. Specifically, he has asked why Abdulmutallab was not placed on the US no-fly list, despite the government having received warnings about his potential links with al-Qaeda.

See also

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• 2001 shoe bomb plot
• 2006 Transatlantic Aircraft Plot
• List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
• List of terrorist incidents, 2009

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External links

Template:Wikinews3

• Registered Flight-path of NWA 253, December 25, 2009
• Criminal Complaint and Affidavit for U.S. v. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, December 25, 2009
• Statement by Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Sara Kuban, Department of Homeland Security, December 25, 2009
• Delta Air Lines Issues Statement on Northwest Flight 253, Delta Air Lines, December 25, 2009
• TSA and DHS Statements on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Transportation Security Administration, December 26, 2009
• Transcript, Audio, Video of President Obama's First Press Conference on Flight 253 Terrorist Attempt

• Articles that may be too long from January 2010
• 2009 crimes in the United States
• Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A330
• Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners in the United States
• Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2009
• Delta Air Lines flights
• Failed airliner bombings
• Islamist terrorism in the United States
• Suicide bombings in the United States
• Terrorist incidents in 2009
• Terrorist incidents in the United States