Second Nigerian on Northwest flight was not a threat
December 28, 2009
The FBI has declared an incident involving a Nigerian businessman on board a flight into Detroit as not serious and that he was not a threat. The man’s behavior began to raise suspicions as he was spending a great deal of time visiting the aircraft’s toilets and was being unresponsive to requests from airline staff. Northwest Airlines flight 253 was en route to Detroit from Amsterdam and had the same flight number as the aircraft that was subject to a terrorist attack on Christmas Day. Although the crew described the thirty-year-old as being disruptive, officials waiting to take him into custody on the tarmac did not find any explosives and gave him the all clear. It appears that the businessman may simply have been suffering from a stomach upset.
The concern follows the Christmas Day attack on a Northwest Airlines aircraft by Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, also a Nigerian. The former U.K. student had attempted to detonate a home made device by injecting a liquid into explosive powder strapped to his leg. Passengers on board have described hearing a sound like fire crackers going off, smelling burning and seeing Abdul Mutallab’s leg go up in flames. Airline crew members and passengers were quick to put out the fire and Abdul Mutallab is now in custody and being questioned about possible links to Al Qaeda. Allegedly Abdul Mutallab had been on a watch list at the time he was allowed to board the Northwest Airlines flight. Investigations into the matter are ongoing.
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