Disturbance on today’s Amsterdam-Detroit flight on Northwest
posted at 5:22 pm on December 27, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
I just got back to the computer this afternoon to discover this:
The same Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight that was attacked on Christmas Day saw another security scare Sunday after a confrontation with a sick passenger, officials said.
Security and airline personnel have been on edge since authorities charged a passenger from Nigeria with attempting to detonate a hidden explosive device while his flight from Amsterdam approached Detroit on Friday.
In the Sunday incident, the flight crew became concerned after the man – also Nigerian – became sick and spent about an hour locked in the bathroom, officials said.
Given the attempt to blow yesterday’s flight out of the air, no one can blame the Northwest crew from using all available caution in dealing with this situation. As it turned out, the passenger turned out to be a “legitimate businessman,” ABC News reports, who was legitimately ill:
Post-flight interviews by investigators determined the passenger was a legitimate businessman who posed no security threat to the plane, the two law enforcement officials said. …
No devices have been found on the plane and investigators say no apparent threats were made, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
The boss wonders when we can expect a lawsuit from CAIR, but I suspect that even CAIR isn’t foolish enough to insert themselves into this situation — at least, not yet.
Update: A good point to remember from the comments — Abdulmutallab also spent 20 minutes in the lavatory pretending to be sick while working on his Fruit of the Booms. This one may be a legitimate businessman … or he could be someone testing responses for other less legitimate travelers to come later.
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Forgive someone who isn’t terribly internet savvy.
I’m registered on Twitter, but don’t get it…but this…why aren’t there “tweets” all over the place from folks that were on those flights?
Is this a really stupid question? If so, I apologize.
Am a wrong in thinking they were maybe scrubbed? Too conspiratorial???? Tell me “Yes!”
Chewy the Lab on December 27, 2009 at 8:07 PM
I think it is an attempt that just plain fizzled. Legitimate business man had legitimate businss alright but it was failed as well. You do not fly from Africa to Detroit with no luggage, sorry.
Just think though, had one of these legit businessman been successful Obama could have established a HI WH and stayed out there for a long time while the country and air traffic returned to normal.
Damn, no pictures of Obama shirtless in January.
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 8:07 PM
I am not a “Twitterer” either but youre totally right. People can “tweet” from their cell phones and whatnot on the fly.
But nothing….nada….zip.
NickTx on December 27, 2009 at 8:10 PM
“Sharp dressed man” aided Northwest flight “Christmas Bomber” Umar Mutallab onto plane without passport. Who was involved, why don’t we know about this other suspect?
Kurt HaskellKurt Haskell’s boarding pass for NWA Flight 253
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.
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.
Haskell 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.
Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.
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 allegedly 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 he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody.
xler8bmw on December 27, 2009 at 8:12 PM
A very plausible scenario. In any event, it makes more sense than what we’re hearing now.
petefrt on December 27, 2009 at 8:12 PM
A very plausible scenario. Desensitize by overwhelming. In any event, it makes more sense than what we’re hearing now.
petefrt on December 27, 2009 at 8:16 PM
Fruit of the Booms….LOL
d1carter on December 27, 2009 at 8:18 PM
Um, thanks. But isnt that about the other day? I’m talking about today’s incident. Forgive me if I read that wrong.
NickTx on December 27, 2009 at 8:18 PM
If this guy had a colon full of C4, the Feds would probably not release any information while they were trying to round up other perpetrators…Let\’s see if and when he is released. A legit businessman would have checked into the Hilton by now…Where is he????
Nozzle on December 27, 2009 at 8:18 PM
Do ya think Napolitano has the brains to checkout the stock
market and see who has the most “puts” on North West Airlines?
centre on December 27, 2009 at 8:20 PM
So, back to the question. Who was the guy in the expensive suit in Amsterdam?
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 8:21 PM
Well actually it is, what happened to the well dressed guy that tried to get him on the plane? He didn’t get on the plane with him but, the guy today was a well dressed guy suppossedly a business man B^()t it was probably the same guy that tried to get him on friday. Since his attempt failed the well dressed guy tried again today.
It is NO coincidence that the same exact thing happened 2 days later.
xler8bmw on December 27, 2009 at 8:23 PM
Good question. Eyes on MM to keep ‘em honest.
petefrt on December 27, 2009 at 8:26 PM
If they were smart, they’d send someone who they can say was a Nigerian Christian. Create confusion and create the perception that the victims are unreasonable.
Buddahpundit on December 27, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Okay, I see. I’m with ya. Thank you. Very informative.
But the question remains, where are the passengers from todays flight? You know theres always someone that will talk about it. Even at the DTW Fox affiliate they are asking people “Were you on flight 253? Please contact us”.
Why are we only hearing crickets?
The plot thickens. I fear something is brewing.
Heckuva job and a shout out to B+ in Hawaii from whom we have heard nothing.
NickTx on December 27, 2009 at 8:28 PM
Well, of course ‘the powers that be’ are lying. It was only a fluke that they told us the truth about the guy on Christmas.
Had 0bama & co been in the Whitehouse, that ‘official’ who told the truth would have been bound and gagged in a closet before he could say the ‘t’ word. As it is, he will be down at the unemployment office tomorrow.
But Rahm no doubt got into action much quicker this time and quashed the truth and put on the spin.
They gotta lie to us. The truth would make them look bad, and possibly stop their domestic agenda.
Don’t stop flying people, don’t be scared. The economy will crash before the intended date if you huddle in your homes. …..
Although…. Hmm…. If no one flies, 0bama can nationalize the airlines, bail them out with another trillion dollars of taxpayer money if y’all quit flying…
Well, either way, 0bama gets a little closer to his goal.
LegendHasIt on December 27, 2009 at 8:28 PM
So, back to the question. Who was the guy in the expensive suit in Amsterdam?
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 8:21 PM
The 2nd man scenario is what I brought up on the first
Hot Air thread, today.
They should show THIS guy’s photo to the people who were
on the Christmas flight in hopes that they can ID him.
If we had COMPETENT officials in this administration,
we’d already have these answers.
centre on December 27, 2009 at 8:31 PM
This is very, very odd.
TN Mom on December 27, 2009 at 8:32 PM
I agree, not a peep for the “O” he’s on TV everyday but, silence LOL on this UNBELIEVABLE! I just want oneday I don’t have to say UNBELIEBVABLE. As much as people wanted to piss on GW for vacationing he would have addressed this issue to the people.
xler8bmw on December 27, 2009 at 8:33 PM
This isn’t rocket science,bomb the h*ll out of
Nigeria,I think they might get the point!!(sarc).
canopfor on December 27, 2009 at 8:34 PM
xler8bmw on December 27, 2009 at 8:33 PM
When the Silent One does speak, he’ll probably say that we shouldn’t judge all nigerians, who board the same airline,
onto the same numbered plane, from the same destination,
who don’t bring any luggage, who lock themselves into the bathroom for an hour before landing…to all be terrorists.
centre on December 27, 2009 at 8:38 PM
Right, my guess is that the guy on the second plane is not the guy in the suit as identified by Haskills but my other guess is that the second bunch of passengers was a hell of alot more observant than the first and if the guy in the suit was noticeable to Mr. Haskill the second group of passengers would be pretty damn valuable.
I’m just glad neither bunch was spread in pieces across the Detroit area. We aren’t going to get much luckier.
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 8:39 PM
I have to disagree I think it’s the very same guy! This is not a coincidence the guy followed the same plan as the other by going to the restroom several times and then an 1hr before landing he is in the bathroom sick. The other guy friday pulled the sick act as well.
xler8bmw on December 27, 2009 at 8:42 PM
I also, believe it will coe out this guy paid with cash for a oneway ticket and had no luggage.
xler8bmw on December 27, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Northwest is Delta-owned now.
Bruno Strozek on December 27, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Just speculation, as we won’t know the truth for a while yet. But…
I go with the commenter who said Obama figured he could use the first hit to his advantage, but a second hit is more than he wants to take.
petefrt on December 27, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Northwest is Delta-owned now.
Bruno Strozek on December 27, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Right…I forgot about that.
So, my question is who stood the most to gain by having
Delta Airlines stocks FALL come Monday morning.
centre on December 27, 2009 at 8:50 PM
If they had pulled off a one-two punch (Christmas & today) then there would be complete panic Monday.
Given that there would not have been any “smoking gun” evidence of a man-caused disaster on Christmas, today’s event would have been the equivalent of the second plane hitting the Towers.
This was a skin-of-the-teeth, rather-be-lucky-than-good escape.
Heavy air travel week coming and the skies are silent.
Your question is relevant: follow the money.
Bruno Strozek on December 27, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Wasn’t there a French plane lost over the ocean about 6 months ago that they have no idea what happened?
Hmmm…
—–
Anyways, my suspicious mind says this “legit” businessman was having a good laugh at the infidels he was panicking.
mockmook on December 27, 2009 at 9:19 PM
Anyways, my suspicious mind says this “legit” businessman was having a good laugh at the infidels he was panicking.
mockmook
And my suspicious mind says that the “businessman” who escorted the the bomber to the Christmas plane is also connected to the event that happened today, and that he had placed put options on Delta Airlines.
centre on December 27, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Democrats have a problem with terrorism. They want to treat it as a law enforcement problem. And that is to gather evidence after the fact, find the guilty party and convict him with the evidence. Unfortunately terrorism doesn’t work that way as we found on 9/11. There were only body parts of the perps we could del with.
The Bush administration did away with Jamie Gorlick’s “wall” between intelligence and law enforcement that caused lack of cooperation between the FBI and CIA prior to 9/11. We had 7 years without a major incident because of Bush’s policies.
For Ms. Nepepalitano to say things went as planned is the height of chutzpah. I might ask, whose plan? The terrorists? Certainly not ours.
Corky Boyd on December 27, 2009 at 9:31 PM
Not that it matters but I’ll bet the suit guy is not the same guy. He obviously put butt boy number 1 on the Christmas flight. He likely didn’t get on the flight himself but put a second butt boy on today’s flight.
It doesn’t really matter but the passengers are the key to figuring out the events leading up to both flights.
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 9:51 PM
In other words there is a Haskins on today’s flight.
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 9:52 PM
Time to quit f***ing around about airline security. Whatever we’re doing right, keep it. Whatever we’re doing wrong, let’s get some consultants from El Al in here and fix it.
And I’m fine with profiling and the most invasive searches necessary. The incidence of Islamic terrorism isn’t subsiding with Obama’s election. Indeed, it’s getting worse, and it makes me think of the line from the Simon & Garfunkel song “Mrs. Robinson”: “Where have you gone, [Dick Cheney] / A nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you.”
I’m reminded of the
BuckeyeSam on December 27, 2009 at 9:55 PM
Not only who was the well-dressed man accompanying the wannabe boomer, but what was the well-dressed man’s destination? Don’t all airports now keep non-ticketed people out of gated areas?
onlineanalyst on December 27, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Tru dat, it reminds me of the scene from History of the World Part I…
Count-D-Money (that’s DeMonet)”Sire, the people are revolting”
King Louis: “You said it, they stink on ice.”
Liberty or Death on December 27, 2009 at 10:01 PM
Oh, good point about non ticketed passengers. I forgot about that.
Is that not a rule in Europe as well?
ORconservative on December 27, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Not buying the cover story whatsoever. Same exact flight from Amsterdam to Detroit two days later and the guy was also a Nigerian claiming to be sick in the restroom. Uh-huh, just a coincidence.
OneGyT on December 28, 2009 at 12:31 AM
xier8bmw, could you elaborate on the information that the two attorneys relayed; that the sharp dressed man “assisting” the underpants terrorist in getting on the plane was stating to the person at the gate desk that the terrorist had no passport? How can he fly with no passport?
Years ago, when I visited Australia, a visa was required.
The visa was stamped inside my passport, which is not to say that it can’t be a separate document, but a passport is also required as far as I know. How did he get on the flight without a passport? And, what was the full nature and extent of the “assistance” rendered by the sharp dressed man, and where is the sharp dressed man now?
tigerlily on December 28, 2009 at 1:37 AM
I agree, this is not a coincidence. Once his terrorist friends learn that all they have to do is stay in the bathroom to cause panic, there will be no end to the mischief they perpetrate.
dogsoldier on December 28, 2009 at 8:19 AM
Nuke Nigeria.
Coronagold on December 28, 2009 at 8:46 AM
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