Terror Attack Stopped By Passengers On Detroit Flight

[twyacht]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34592031/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?GT1=43001

BREAKING NEWS
msnbc.com and NBC News
updated 15 minutes ago

ROMULUS, Mich. - A Nigerian man claiming ties to al-Qaida tried to light a powder aboard a commercial jetliner before it landed Friday in Detroit in what senior U.S. officials called an attempted act of terrorism.

“He appears to have had some kind of incendiary device he tried to ignite,” a senior U.S. official told NBC News. Other officials said the explosive device was a mixture of powder and liquid, which failed when the passenger tried to detonate it during the plane’s descent into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

Two people noticed the attempted attack, and a third person jumped on the man and subdued him, an airline official told NBC News. The man was being treated at the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, officials said.

Federal officials identified the man as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, of Nigeria, who was traveling one way, without a return ticket.

Rep. Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the incident, said Abdulmutallab was known in federal counterterrorism files and may have been on the government’s list of suspicious passengers banned from flying in the United States.

King said the incident raised troubling questions about airline security. “It must be looked into” how Abdulmutallab was able to sneak a “somewhat sophisticated device” on board, he said.

Abdulmutallab told investigators that he wanted to set off a bomb over the United States and claimed to be connected to al-Qaida, the terrorism network responsible for the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, counterterrorism officials said.

A counterterrorism official said Abdulmutallab, who was subdued by the crew of Northwest Air Lines Flight 253 from Amsterdam, left Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday and boarded the flight in Amsterdam on Friday.

The timing of the attempted attack could be significant. It was eight years ago this week that a similar attempted attack was launched by a British member of al-Qaida who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami by igniting explosives in his shoes. And the attempted attack comes on the same day that the Taliban released a video of a U.S. soldier it is holding captive in Afghanistan.

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More at link,

Let's see how this is "spun" into a "non" event, by a disturbed individual....

Seems passengers and crew saw what was going on and pretty much stopped his attempts.

Remember the shoe bomber? He had a few "extra" blows of persuasion on his attempt also.

[Texas_Bryan]

What the hell is their obsession with planes?

[r_w]

What the hell is their obsession with planes?

Unarmed potential victims.

[twyacht]

Unarmed potential victims.

True, but after 9/11 American passengers are NOT going to tolerate box cutters, IED's , or whatever,.. able bodied passengers will simply "bum rush" and beat the s*** out of anyone who tries this crap again.

The guy you wouldn't give the time of day in the terminal from Tulsa, will have your back if some hijacker tries this crap, and that is what appears to have happened on this flight.

Never again....

[tombogan03884]

 One major point of fascination with planes is that they are extremely delicate, and when something does break there is no "Pulling over to the Breakdown lane".

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

First report of this I read said that he set off firecrackers, and the injuries were from panic.

Why airlines?  My thoughts are that an airliner is a secure and secluded place; it has many victims built in; it is large, heavy and loaded with fuel making it a mobile bomb; and anything that happens with an airliner will instantly become world news.  Pardon the pun, but using an airliner is the biggest bang for the buck. 

Along with this we need to remember that these are "terror" attacks.  By attacking airlines, railroad and large office buildings (World Trade Center, Pentagon, Federal buildings, etc.) they remove our sense of security.  And, by removing our sense of security they are half way to victory.

[fightingquaker13]

I, for one, am glad for the obsession with planes. Airport security, as annoying and flawed as it is, is pretty tight compared to the rest of our lives. The terrorists spend time, money and energy (ala Wille E. Coyote) trying to foil it. The terrorists do this because they know it will make the news. Frankly though, if I were a terrorist, I'd say sod this for a game of soldiers, and go low tech. Recruit a few dozen knuckle heads, arm them with AKs or shotguns and turn them loose in a few shopping malls or mega-churches one fine Sunday morning. You would have almost guarranteeded sucess, lower risk of being detected beforehand, and save a lot of money.
FQ13

[Ichiban]

As the details of this story come to light it would behoove one to remember that we are going to be told partial truths (at best) to keep a lid on the situation.  The cowboys (the folks feeding the lamestream media the "facts") are going to be singing their hearts out to make sure the heard doesn't get spooked.  And those fools will think they are doing some actual journalism. 

Sorry, did that sound cynical? 

[tombogan03884]

I, for one, am glad for the obsession with planes. Airport security, as annoying and flawed as it is, is pretty tight compared to the rest of our lives. The terrorists spend time, money and energy (ala Wille E. Coyote) trying to foil it. The terrorists do this because they know it will make the news. Frankly though, if I were a terrorist, I'd say sod this for a game of soldiers, and go low tech. Recruit a few dozen knuckle heads, arm them with AKs or shotguns and turn them loose in a few shopping malls or mega-churches one fine Sunday morning. You would have almost guarranteeded sucess, lower risk of being detected beforehand, and save a lot of money.
FQ13

Air line security is a joke, all that TSA crap is just a smoke screen to comfort the clueless.
With a limited amount of observation and information from the internet you could sneak an ICBM onto an airliner, (If it will fit )

[Texas_Bryan]

Air line security is a joke, all that TSA crap is just a smoke screen to comfort the clueless.
With a limited amount of observation and information from the internet you could sneak an ICBM onto an airliner, (If it will fit )

Agreed, my first hand sources have told me the same.  I just don't know why they don't roll a half dozen duffel bags into a bottlenecked airport security and figure the rest out from there.