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.
“Nope, European Union is part of Islam now.”
Right. My bad, I didn’t get the pecking order right!
When I flew on a regular basis, I , along with a 6’4” Swede, was always pulled out for extra screening. The guy from Pakistan (a Christian who fled decades ago) was only searched every other time.
I asked the guys why, and they always said that it was less trouble to search two German looking guys as opposed to the Pakistani. Less legal issues.
A "troll" is someone who "trolls"...a fishing term. That is, someone who posts, waving bait or lure before your eyes, hoping for you to bite. If you truly believe someone is trolling, what does it say about you if you bite?
And the "winky smiley" indicates humor or that something is not meant to be taken seriously (or can be flirtatious...sorry to disappoint, but that was not the connotation I intended). As the link says, more of a "don't hit me for what i just said" smiley.
Cheers! :-)
bombs built right and detonated aren’t going to be detered by an alarm...pulllleeezeeee
“...if you are young, not well dressed, obviously african/muslim, you can board any plane in the workd without a passport...”
And an elderly, well-dressed caucasion American can’t get off a cruise ship in Los Angeles without a passport any more. Go figure.
I’m amazed there’s no link found yet to that Airtran flight yet a few weeks ago from Atlanta to Houston. That was weird too.
The second guy couldve been Pakistani/Bangaladeshi, which would slot into this whole story.
Maybe the “wait”...the time delay was because he was too drugged to act until he was closer to landing.
No, I'm sure that Daisie E. King looked like a young Muslim male.
</sarc>
I mean, check out her son, who put the bomb in her luggage (have to click the link, since it's a Corbis image).
You attend the same engineering school? ;-)
Seesh.
Next we'll find out he doesn't have a birth certificate either.
Whoa.... I bet Al Q did not want to WASTE the passport!! They would use it if they HAD to on this human bomb, but if they could spare it and use it for the NEXT guy...
BE SCARED.
I doubt the father warned the embassy. Probably disinformation.
yep...newby...only been involved w/ the web for 15 or so years.
of course you’re 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.
what does it say if i bite? that when you purposefly make satements that people read/react to them...even with your cutsey emoticons.
yep...the “it was a joke” argument is very useful to the PC crowd...it won’t surprise me to see the latest crotch-bomber claim it was just a joke ;)
Then they attempt to find accomplices of the terror suspect(s) and thus everyone undergoes interviews and/or interrogations.
I am quite surprised that you are surprised about this SOP.
I can't recall all the specifics or the exact terms, but precisely where he had a ticket to sit is a super dangerous place to have a bomb go off, MUCH more dangerous than the airplane bathroom.
I’m sure he got on board with a passport. I just think that his handler there would have liked to KEEP the passport if possible. After all, they are expensive and this one was going to become confetti over Michigan. His ploy didn’t work and the guy got on the plane.
However, this was a RED FLAG, Dutch airport security! When they tell you he’s a Somali refugee and then his passport says he’s Nigerian, that should alert you.
my point about the bathroom that has gotten lost in the discussion is that the NEW requirement to have your ass in your seat now for 1 hour PRIOR to landing is STUPID!
We are to say that a terrorist isn’t willing to travel with a pound of explosives up his ass...couldn’t go into the bathroom at 1 hour and 5 minutes before landing to assemble the bomb, strap it on his person and go back to his “wing seat”.
NOW everyone is being held to the same “keep your ass in your seat for the next 60 minutes”...that means the HEROS who may lunge at a terroist who now pulls out a syrine and tries to secretly detonate the bomb.
MY point is that we are treating ALL passengers as terrorist with the 60 minutes in your seat requirement which will HINDER heros from head locks, wretling, punches etc.
I can’t believe we haven’t heard more people state that the 60 minute keep your ass in your seat RULE is actually “helping” the terrorist to work unhindered!
HMMM terrorist buys 3 tickets gets 3 seats together and or course the other 2 seats won’t be occupied...so he has space and cover to do his dirty deeds and any person who might get a glimpse will have to yell...ITS A BOMB instead of tacking the creep.
shaking head that no one is seeing the bigger picture...we are handing the terrorist yet another win.
“all passengers will be treated like terrorists”
If I ever HAD to fly, I'd sure hope that I could take El Al.
What is... even worse to me... that all the crazy horrid screening procedures is (what appears to me to be) the fact that PASSENGERS are considered to be expedible.
I mean... who would want to use an industry where the Congress HAD to pass legislation that it's against the law to leave passengers trapped in planes on runways overnight without food & water or bathrooms.
I mean... this is INSANE, and I don't understand why anyone trusts ANY airline, with of course the possible exception of El Al.
For instance, in the matter discussed by Candor7 above, the FACT is that the airlines want to RETRIEVE EVIDENCE - evidence is important; if the passengers are on a plane rigged with bombs, well geeeez, what will happen to the evidence?
They DON'T care about the people on the plane, and this is SOP; the humans are dispensible disposable useless eaters; but the evidence to convict an islamist muslim terrorist is crucial.
I won't discuss what I think of the airline industry with friends of mine who fly all the time, because they consider me silly & naive, but I don't see how any sane individual would trust any of our airlines.
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