Homeland Security admits security measures did not work for Flight 253
December 29, 2009
Janet Napolitano, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary has admitted that the security system she claimed on Sunday worked had in fact failed. In a statement to CNN on Sunday Napolitano defended measures in place to screen potential threats after they had failed to prevent Nigerian born Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab boarding a Southwest Airlines jet en route to Detroit. The would be bomber managed to smuggle on board an extremely potent explosive called PETN and as the aircraft was making its decent into Detroit he managed to ignite the substance.
Yesterday Napolitano back tracked on her initial statement and told Fox News that something had gone wrong. She said that she could not possibly claim that the security systems in place had worked after the incident that took place on Christmas Day. Also speaking to Fox News was Harold Demuren, chief of the Nigerian Aviation Authority. He said that Abdul Mutallab had been allowed to get on the international flight with only a small piece of hand luggage. He went on to point out that this should have raised enough suspicion at least to give the bomber a quick search.
Security experts have pointed out that it would have been very difficult to smuggle explosives onto the aircraft if the airport had used sniffer dogs or machines that collect and analyse dust particles by blowing air onto passengers. They also pointed out that because there were no air-marshals on Flight 253 the passengers and crew had been forced to deal with the situation themselves.
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