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.
Exactly....He did ‘his job’, getting the moron to board the plane without any passport.
Of course, he will catch hell now....once the Sheik reads he was wearing a Canali suit and Lorenzo Banfi shoes.
This must be a joke...have you been to UK??? You really think a muslim needs a passport in UK? Please...
You gotta see this. Unnamed airline administratpr lets the perp board without a passport. Must be a liberal leftists romantic idiot, or one who takes a bribe.
UNFREAKIN BELIEVEABLE!
Perp number 2 , allegedly an Indian ( Paki more like) had a bomb iin his bag that he got aboard, which is why the flight was sequestered on an unused runwaty in DETROIT, WITH ALL PASSENGERS STILL ABOARD WHILE THEY UNLOADED THE BAGGAGE.( A passer by noted that the front landing gear was OFF THE GROUND, which is what happens when you shift luggage around the inside of a cargo hold all to one side....at the back.)
What does THAT say?
All aboard the A/C were expendable if the bomb went off. WHAT IDIOTS!!!!
If this story is bogus we could expect to hear Haskell’s protest soon.
Kurt Haskell comes back as an attorney in MI per Martindale’s. Lori comes back as an assistant to the firm at the same address via a different source.
Instead, the mysterious crash would have been attributed to some cockamamie chain of outlandish events such as an exploding center fuel tank.
I would surmise the Europeans are developing PC sympathy for the Muslims who are taking over their countries. Don’t want to step on any toes.
I’m getting tired of waiting while they search grandmas and nuns. Tine to start profiling.
What I find interesting is that the perp apparently waited until the plane was nearly at it’s destination before doing anything to detonate the explosive. Perhaps he was not that enthusiastic about being a martyr and only got up the courage at the end of the flight.
I agree. People mishear things. It could have been he didn't have some form of secondary ID like a drivers license. Who knows? The larger point of the story is not changed by that detail. There was apparently some incident involving this man not initially being allowed to fly and it also involved another person. If this is true why isn't the press reporting it?
that’s true that.
My mother in law came down here from the north east and she’s in her 70’s while she had to go through extra security she said 3 pakistani young guys were just waved on.
When she asked the TSA woman at Boston why she is being pulled aside and they were not she was told that she had no choice or she’d be in trouble for racial profiling
Now that is totally messed up.
little old white Christian American granny gets pulled aside and 3 pakistani young guys get waved on.
WTF?????
What is needed is another Obama sppech.....that will solve everythiong!/extreme sarc
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how many times have we been attacked and people died since bozo has took office ?
Now how many under Bush?
I thought the world would love us now, ARF we all know that is crap as I have family abroad and they’re all making fun of bozo saying he has no leadership and is way over his head.
The man has no clue how many states we have let alone piont to Europe on a map.
While this failed attack was going on he is still down in HI , of course not attending a church but probably playing golf something Bush was persecuted for and he never played as many times in 8 years than what bozo has played in less than a year.
Maybe homeland is too busy looking at those who are against abortion and probably listening in to our calls something else the left has no problem now as it is their cult leader doing it.
“Unfortunately, US Embassy did not listen and did nothing...UNDER Obama - this one cannot be Bush fault.”
Wanna bet? If it gets ANY publicity, it WILL be spun as Bush’s fault. Then again, the rest of the story will never get any publicity.
Our President got a pass on documents for the same reason.
Maybe this guy wants to run for president?
If that is indeed what Senior did, then he has to fear for his life from now on.
ever been to London heathrow?
it’s mostly paki’s and indians who work there and I bet msot who hate us.
I avoid that airport as some I do in this country.
The best airport I found(never been to Israel) is Manchester in the UK and Jacksonville, Vegas over here.
I have actually got on a flight to the UK with no passport going through JFK as security was too busy talking about their weekends coming up (was before 9/11)
It’s pretty clear that the guy had no intention of trying to clear immigration.
He boarded in Nigeria and cleared security at that point. They allowed him to board without a passport. What we don't know is whether he had to clear security and immigration in Amsterdam.
It could be that the transfer between planes did not require a pass through Amsterdam immigration. If anyone knows the Amsterdam immigration rules for flights from Nigeria they should let us know. It is a very important point. My personal view is that he could not board a plane in Amsterdam heading for the U.S. without a passport.
the flight came from Africa where security is a joke, when you change planes sometimes you don’t get checked all that much as the airport you’re changing at is thinking that they were checked in the country of origin.
That needs to be changed ASAP.
Also why are we accepting flights from certain airports.
Why can’t the homeland defense check all airports around the world(yes I know it takes time) and only accept flights from more secure airports .
Why should we accept flight right from Africa(I know this was not one?) when their security is a joke.
If those from these areas do not like it tough or we have the airlines have their own security at these airports without that Govt getting in the way?
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