Posted on 12/26/2009 11:55:38 AM PST by American Dream 246
A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport, and believes at least one other person from the flight was arrested on Friday at Detroit Metro Airport.
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.
Kurt HaskellLori and Kurt HaskellHaskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
Haskell said the flight was mostly unremarkable. That was until he heard a flight attendant say she smelled smoke, just after the pilot announced the plane would land in Detroit in 10 minutes. Haskell got out of his seat to view the brewing commotion.
I stood up and walked a couple feet ahead to get a closer look, and that's when I saw the flames, said Haskell, who sat about seven rows behind Mutallab. It started to spread pretty quickly. It went up the wall, all the way to ceiling.
Haskell, who described Mutallab as a diminutive man who looks like a teenager, said about 30 seconds passed between the first mention of smoke and when Mutallab was subdued by fellow passengers.
He didn't fight back at all. This wasn't a big skirmish, Haskell said. A couple guys jumped on him and hauled him away.
The ordeal has Haskell and his wife a little shaken. Flight attendants were screaming during the fire and the pilot sounded notably nervous when bringing the plane in for a landing, he said.
Immediately, the pilot came on and said two words: emergency landing, Haskell said. And that was it. The plane sped up instead of slowing down. You could tell he floored it.
As Mutallab was being led out of the plane in handcuffs, Haskell said he realized that was the same man he saw trying to board the plane in Amsterdam.
Passengers had to wait about 20 minutes before they were allowed to exit the plane. Haskell said he and other passengers waited about six hours to be interviewed by the FBI.
About an hour after landing, Haskell said bomb-sniffing dogs detected something in a fellow passenger's bag at Detroit Metro Airport. He says the FBI told passengers to move to another area of the airport following the incident. They said, 'It's not a safe area. Read into that what you want.' I interpreted it to mean that there's a bomb in his carry-on.
Though Haskell says he saw that man led away in handcuffs, he has yet to see anything discussed publicly about a second arrest even though he believes it may somehow be connected to Mutallab's foiled terror attack. I know what I saw.
A call to the FBI on Saturday afternoon has not yet been returned.
Unbelievable, IIRC we can’t cross back and forth into Mexico or Canada without a passport now, but this guy can board an international flight with none??? The airline had better fire the manager that allowed this.
As for REAL Sudanese refugees — there should be a way to handle the problem if it is real vs. suspending security procedures.
I doubt people regularly get on international flights, especially bound for he U.S. without passports.
If there is anything to this, then Northwest/Delta has a lot of ‘splaining to do.
The airlines are subject to a substantial fine if they permit someone on a plane to the US who: is not a U.S. citizen or has a “green card;” hasn’t a valid passport; and lacks either a visa from a US or is from a country where the “visa waiver” rule is in effect (whereby you don’t need a visa from a consulate to enter the US, because your “visa” is stamped onto your entry card.)
This is all very puzzling, from the standpoint of U.S. immigration law. IF the guy had had a British passport, he would have legitimately (!) gotten onto the plane.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2181917/replies?c=1803
The affadavit filed by the Feds claims he spent 20 minutes in the airplane bathroom.
So you should know better. The two existed well before you started.
of course youre right...the only definition of a troll is associated with fishing...never with someone who lives and makes his living from under a bridge, deviously.
Ah, yes... the wonderful "change the definitions and words" trick. I suppose we could redefine things your way--liberally...I mean, "progressively."
yep...the it was a joke argument is very useful to the PC crowd...it wont surprise me to see the latest crotch-bomber claim it was just a joke ;)
Heh...cute! :-)
with a name like AbdulMutaballs I wouldn’t want a passport either....Reminds me of an old favorite song....Hot Nuts, Hot Nuts...get them everywhere I can. Hot Nuts, Hot Nuts....
"Further, security procedures in Amsterdam did not provide for re-screening passengers originating from Nigeria and air marshals are prohibited on flights originating from the Netherlands. All are things likely known by the terrorists"
“if you are young, not well dressed, obviously african/muslim, you can board any plane in the world without a passport.” So now “I was born a poor black child” equals a passport?? Maybe in crazy ass obamaland, but not the U.S.A.!
...Now how many under Bush?...
2751
I thought I mentioned how many times on our own soil.
do you have the figures for that please
I had heard that his goal was to detonate over the US. Most of the flight, except for the last few minutes was over Canadian airspace. I have been trying to find a track of the flight, seeing as I live in the metro Detroit area and sometimes flights track over my locale. I did find a track, I think, that looks like it entered US airspace just north of downtown Detroit, headed south along the river and Lake Erie, and then must have turned north over the Monroe area for it's final approach. Monroe does have a nuclear power plant, but I don't see how his could have been directed at that.
Those are the number of people killed in terrorist attacks on our soil during these two administrations, AFAIK.
If that is a new rule on Internatuonal flights, I will strap a surplus fighter pilot’s pi$$ bottle to my leg and hook up the lad to it via tube, right in my seat.
Might come in handy too putting out fires.(sarc. off)
Thanks Manc for posing the correct question.
Now to respond to Freeppathetic
How many died post9/11 from domestic terrorism in 7 3/4 years under President Bush? ZERO! 0.
How many have died from domestic terrorism under obama in 11 months? 32 THIRTY TWO!
And thanks to nappy, holder and bama’s tilting the legal playing field to domestic islamic terrorists we almost added an entire planeload to the 32 military and civilians murdered by an islamic terrorist at Ft Hood.
Had 278 more died, that would have brought the total to 2010, not including the crew.
God does still bless the US of A. There are still some good men in Sodom.
OK. My math’s off. I’m tired and am going to be quiet. And here I was just working in Excel. Oh well.
Ummm Combat boots
278 plus 32 = 310, not 2010.
But under this chicago guided mob, it may well be 2010 in 2010.
He probably dressed like that on purpose - so that he could look like a poor man/refugee from Sudan in order to gain sympathy. At least that is what part of the article said.
He probably had a passport, but did not want to use it - maybe knowing that he was being ‘watched’.
Possible bomb on plane which could go off at any moment and they keep the passengers on the plane? Not SOP.
The SOP is to get them off the plane and sequestered in a closed area under guard, while the luggage is checked. Every airport is supposed to be set up for it.
It is against the law to keep a passenger on a plane after it has landed. I would have debarked whether they liked it or not. No one should be forced to sit on a plane that has a bomb in the luggage compartment.And the airlines see it that wat too ( think of the wrongful death claims in the millions against the airline, if a bomb goes off.)
The authorities screwed up big time.
He was refered to a manager. And then he was given a boarding pass by who? The janitor?
Also their luggage wasn’t likely vetted by security but likely went straight to the plane in the last minutes befoe departure.
How else would a bomb be found in luggage at Detroit?
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