ROMULUS, Mich. — A Nigerian man who said he was an agent for al-Qaida tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane Friday as it was preparing to land in Detroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded like firecrackers rushed to subdue him, the passengers and federal officials said.
Flight 253, an Airbus A330 wide-body jet with 278 passengers and 11 crew members on board, was about 20 minutes from the airport when passengers heard popping noises, witnesses said. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man.
Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to the front of the plane with his pants cut off and his legs burned, a passenger said. One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a traveler from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."
Smith said a passenger climbed over other people, crossed the aisle and tried to restrain the man. Syed Jafri, another passenger, said he saw a glow and smelled smoke. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him."
"Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," said Jafri, 57, of Holland, Ohio. Smith said the young man who jumped appeared to have been burned.
Once on the ground, the plane was guided to the end of a runway, where it was surrounded by police cars and emergency vehicles and searched by a bomb-disabling robot.
White House officials said they believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. Officials did not specify what those measures were.
The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines flight between Paris and Miami in December 2001 by igniting his explosives-laden shoes but was subdued by other passengers. That incident is one reason passengers must remove their shoes before passing through security checkpoints in U.S. airports. Reid is serving a life sentence.
Law-enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday's attempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23. One law-enforcement official said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to blow up the plane over U.S. soil. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
The man was being questioned late Friday. It was unclear how Abdul Mutallab managed to get the explosive onto the plane, officials said.
An intelligence official said the Nigerian was being held and treated in an Ann Arbor, Mich., hospital. One passenger was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, hospital spokeswoman Tracy Justice said. She referred all inquiries to the FBI.
Flight 253 began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"This was the real deal," he said, adding that something had gone wrong with the explosive, which he described as somewhat sophisticated. "This could have been devastating."
A senior Department of Homeland Security official said that the device Abdul Mutallab had was "more incendiary than explosive."
Abdul Mutallab told authorities, the official said, that he had explosive powder taped to his leg and used a syringe of chemicals to mix with the powder to try to cause an explosion.
Suspect in database
A federal counterterrorism official, who asked not to be identified, said Abdul Mutallab was apparently in a government law-enforcement-intelligence database, but it was not clear what extremist group or individuals he might be linked to.
"It's too early to say what his association is," the counterterrorism official said. "At this point, it seems like he was acting alone, but we don't know for sure." Although Abdul Mutallab is said to have told officials he was directed by al-Qaida, the counterterrorism official expressed caution about that claim, saying "it may have been aspirational."
A spokeswoman for police at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam declined to comment about the case or security procedures at the airport for Flight 253. Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest, strictly enforces European security regulations, including allowing only small amounts of liquids and gels in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the flight until it was on final approach to Detroit, said Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. That is when the pilot declared an emergency, she said.
The flight landed at 12:51 p.m. EST, she said.
Delta Air Lines, which bought Northwest last year, said that "upon approach to Detroit, a passenger caused a disturbance." It said the passenger was subdued immediately and the crew asked that law-enforcement officials meet the flight.
Smith, the Netherlands traveler, said that while he was leaving the plane, he looked at where the man had been sitting and saw a pillow that seemed to have been burned. Melinda Dennis, who was seated in the front row of the plane, said the man involved was brought to the front row and seated near her. She said his legs appeared to be badly burned and his pants were cut off. She said he was taken off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher.
President Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, administration officials said. They said he was receiving regular updates at his vacation place in Hawaii.
Federal officials said there would be heightened security for domestic and international flights at airports across the country, but the intensified levels would likely be "layered," differing from location to location depending on alerts, security concerns and other factors.
Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, with more officers, bomb-sniffing dogs and behavioral-detection specialists at some airports, but there will be unspecified, less visible precautions as well, officials said.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season. At the time, officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
Spotlight on Nigeria
In 2003, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden purportedly marked Nigeria for liberation in a recording posted on the Internet, calling on Muslims in the oil-rich country to rise up against one of the "regimes who are slaves of America."
But links to al-Qaida remained rare, though security forces claimed to have broken up such a linked terror cell in November 2007.
Security at Nigeria's two major international airports, in the capital Abuja and the megacity of Lagos, remains a point of concern.
Police often focus their time on keeping hagglers and taxi drivers out. Bags pass through X-ray scanners quickly, and those watching incoming passengers do not typically test for explosive residue on passengers' carry-on baggage or shoes.
At the gate, airline workers often check passengers again with metal detectors.
A Delta Air Lines plane was being used for Northwest Flight 253. Delta is days away from obtaining a single operating certificate from the FAA to fully integrate itself and Northwest.
