Alerts: Counter-terror officials fear regional airports are being targeted for dummy runs by would-be terrorists
Security officials have tested security at regional airports amid fears terror scouts have been staging dummy runs, it emerged today.
Two suspect packages have reportedly been spotted in the last three months which appeared to be like improvised bombs.
One hidden in a box inside a bag of hand luggage had a BlackBerry attached to a baby's bottle with a charging cable thought to be simulating a detonator.
The second - spotted at the same airport some weeks later - also contained a mobile phone and detonator, according to The Guardian.
Both 'devices' were examined by bomb disposal experts and found to be harmless, meaning no passengers were charged.
Police have detained and are questioning the man said to be carrying explosives on board a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777, which was diverted to Sweden while en route to Pakistan from Canada.
The incident began after a woman called Canadian police after the plane had taken off and said a man on board had explosives with him.
An airport bus carries passengers away from a Pakistan Airlines jet which landed at Arlanda Airport near Stockholm following the bomb threat today, September 25, 2010.
Canadian police are investigating whether a phoned-in hoax caused a Pakistani jet to be diverted to Stockholm for several hours Saturday for fear that one of its passengers was carrying explosives.
Police evacuated 273 people from the jet, and briefly detained a Canadian man, after an anonymous caller in Canada tipped-off authorities that the suspect was carrying explosives.
However, no explosives were found on the man, who was released after questioning by police, or on the Boeing 777 from Pakistan International Airlines, which had been bound from Toronto to Karachi, Pakistan.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it was investigating whether the incident was a "terrorism hoax."
A Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 plane stands on the tarmac at Stockholm Arlanda International airport Saturday Sept. 25, 2010. The aircraft was en route from Toronto to Karachi, when Canadian authorities received a tip-off that a passenger could be carrying explosives and the plane was diverted to Stockholm. Swedish police detained a man described as a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin aboard the plane, but a bomb squad that searched the Boeing 777 found nothing suspicious on board.
A Boeing 747 of Iran's national airline Iran Air at Mehrabad International airport in Tehran
Iran Air's jets have been banned from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, it was revealed today.
The move is not related to U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, EU officials emphasised.
The 27-nation bloc also relaxed restrictions on two airlines from Indonesia and put a Suriname airline on its blacklist of carriers the EU believes do not meet international safety standards.
Police said three men aged 58, 48 and 36 were arrested.
Armed police boarded the Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai, on the runway and arrested three men aged 58, 48 and 36 after passengers raised the alarm.
Scotland Yard later said that they had been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat.
A passenger has been charged with making a bomb threat that grounded a packed jet at Heathrow Airport, police said.
Robert Fowles, 58, from Dover, Kent, is accused of a bomb hoax and being drunk on an aircraft, the Metropolitan Police said.
Alexander McGinn, 48, and also from Dover, has also been charged with being drunk on an aircraft.
Armed police boarded the Dubai-bound Emirates flight as it was taxiing for take off on Saturday night, after remarks were made to cabin crew.
Fowles, who lives in Edred Road, Dover, will appear from custody at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday.
The charges in detail are making a bomb hoax/communicate false information contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977 and being drunk on an aircraft contrary to the Civil Aviation Act 1982.
McGinn, of Lowther Road, has been bailed and will appear at the same court on January 22. He was also charged with being drunk on an aircraft contrary to the Civil Aviation Act 1982.
A third passenger on board the plane who was arrested - a man aged 36 - was released without charge, police said.
More than 330 passengers were on the Boeing 777 at the time of the alert. They had to leave the aircraft while officers carried out a search.
Police later said they did not find any dangerous substances aboard. Emirates arranged hotel accommodation for stranded travellers overnight and they were allowed to depart on the aircraft on Sunday.
Armed officers stormed a plane at London's Heathrow airport as it was about to depart for Dubai and arrested three men on suspicion of making a bomb threat, police said Saturday.
The Emirates flight was preparing to take off late Friday when a "verbal threat" was made to staff, London's Metropolitan Police Service said.
"Police were alerted and armed officers boarded the plane," a police statement said.
"Three men aged 58, 48 and 36 were arrested and are now in police custody. They have been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat."
A photograph purportedly taken inside the aircraft showed police in black overalls, and a passenger said officers brandishing guns in body armour burst onto the plane and hauled the suspects away.
Sky News television, which broadcast the grainy picture from the plane, said the men arrested were English and appeared to be drunk.
The alert came amid heightened security at airports around the world following an alleged attempt by a young Nigerian to bomb a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day by concealing explosives in his underwear.
Passenger Cameron McLean, who Sky said supplied them with the photograph, told the broadcaster: "Some special police just came on the plane and arrested these two guys a few rows in front of me.
"The police just swarmed the guy and then rushed him out. I think he was a white male," he said.
The passenger added there were about five armed officers who were wearing helmets, body armour and carrying what appeared to be automatic weapons.
The Metropolitan Police said they were alerted after the threat was made at around 9:15 pm (2115 GMT) on Friday.
They said passengers had been removed from the plane and the aircraft was being searched. The airport -- one of the world's busiest air hubs -- remained open, police added.
A spokesman for airport operator BAA said the incident had only affected the Dubai-bound plane.
Emirates said officers boarded the plane after "remarks" made as Flight EK004 was preparing to depart.
"The safety and security of all our passengers is paramount," the airline added.
The security scare came after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, allegedly tried to detonate a device stitched into his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam as it landed in the United States on December 25.
In a court in Detroit on Friday, he pleaded not guilty to six charges related to the incident, which has led to security being stepped at airports worldwide.
Full-body scanners are to be introduced at Britain's airports and Heathrow will be the first to receive the devices before the end of the month, Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab spent the year of 2004-5 at the Sana Institute for the Arabic Language in Yemen.
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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an airplane last week, already spoke fluent Arabic by the time he arrived here in Yemen for classes last summer, impressing his instructors with his command of the language he had supposedly come to improve.
Then, after six weeks in and out of class, the school got him an exit visa, and on Sept. 21 even arranged for a car that took Mr. Abdulmutallab to the airport, the director said.
“After that we never saw him again, and apparently he did not leave Yemen,” the director, Muhammed al-Anisi, said. “We heard later that he may have gone to Hadramawt,” the poor eastern province where Al Qaeda is strong, and from where Osama bin Laden’s father left poverty to make his fortune in Saudi Arabia.
In retrospect, Mr. Anisi suspects, Mr. Abdulmutallab simply used the school as a formal pretext to legally re-enter Yemen last summer after being recruited elsewhere by Al Qaeda.
“I do wonder if the school was an excuse,” he said, noting that Mr. Abdulmutallab remained in Yemen after his visa expired, disappearing into Yemen’s Qaeda training grounds and emerging on Christmas Day to try to blow up a packed airplane heading to Detroit. When he left Yemen in December, the authorities here acknowledge, no one stopped Mr. Abdulmutallab for overstaying his visa.
Mr. Anisi spoke publicly on Thursday for the first time, after three days of questioning by the Yemeni security services. His office is adorned with numerous framed certificates of appreciation for his teaching from the American Peace Corps, which closed its program years ago. Now Mr. Anisi is distraught at what is happening to the reputation of his language school.
Mr. Abdulmutallab had spent the academic year of 2004-2005 at this school, the Sana Institute for the Arabic Language, whose slogan is “Arabic with authenticity.” Back then, his Arabic was rudimentary, but he enjoyed his life here, including the presence of a Pizza Hut and a KFC. Afterward, Mr. Abdulmutallab went to school in London and became increasingly devout and then increasingly radical in his views.
Mr. Anisi wonders, like other analysts, where Mr. Abdulmutallab was recruited by Al Qaeda before coming back here, and whether his return to Yemen last summer, and to the language school, was organized for him to undergo training.
Thursday was Mr. Anisi’s first day back at work after the questioning. He was not formally arrested, and the security forces were polite, he said, but he insisted that he had no real key to the transformation of Mr. Abdulmutallab, now 23, whom he described in his latest period here as increasingly devout, generous, invariably polite and yet also unsociable.
Mr. Abdulmutallab was the only African student in the school of 70 students, and by the time he returned to the school here on Aug. 4, purportedly to improve his Arabic, “I found his Arabic was already so good, he was not really benefiting from the courses but was at the top of his class,” Mr. Anisi said.
Mr. Abdulmutallab often skipped class but did not seem to have many Yemeni friends, Mr. Anisi said, and other foreign students at the school said his devotion to Islam, including attendance at nearby mosques in the old city for prayer five times a day, cut him off from others. On the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, Mr. Abdulmutallab performed “Itikaf,” remaining in the mosque for prayer and Koranic readings, concentrating on the divine, and isolated from excessive socializing, eating and sleeping.
“Even that was not strange to me,” Mr. Anisi said. “Many devout Yemenis do the same.”
One of Mr. Abdulmutallab’s fellow students offered a similar assessment. “He only showed up for a few classes, and then he said he wanted to focus on prayer and Ramadan,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity and referred to the Islamic holy month that began this year in late August.
While always polite, Mr. Abdulmutallab once cut off another student, an American named Sigurd Sorensen, from walking in front of him while he was praying, Mr. Sorensen told reporters. The two later apologized to each other. Other students said Mr. Abdulmutallab never played music in his room, but often was reading the Koran.
Mr. Anisi started this school in 2000, in a beautiful old house in the Tabariya neighborhood of Old Sana. At first, the school attracted numerous British citizens and Americans learning Arabic at colleges and universities who wanted to study it intensively and live immersed in the language.
But Al Qaeda’s attack on the U.S.S. Cole happened here that year, and then there were the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and now, Mr. Anisi said sadly, “there are very few Americans or Europeans who come.”
Most of the students here are from Indonesia and Malaysia, and some from South Korea and China. Many students are not Muslim, though most female students veil themselves when they go outside, following local custom.
“I remember him as very friendly, quiet and respectful,” Mr. Anisi said of Mr. Abdulmutallab. “You would never imagine he would do this horrible thing. From smiling and helping to killing, I can’t believe it. We taught him Arabic here, not religion.”
Terror suspect: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in 2002 at his year 11 graduation ceremony
The explosive would have been picked up on a full-body scanner like this one at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC
A TSA officer screens an airline passenger in Terminal C at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Pre-flight screenings were stepped up after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight
The explosive device used by the would-be Detroit bomber contained a widely available - and easily detected - chemical that has a long history of terrorist use, according to experts.
The chemical - PETN - is small, powerful and appealing to terrorists.
The Saudi government said it was used in an assassination attempt on the country's counterterrorism operations chief in August.
It was also a component of the explosive that Richard Reid, the convicted 'shoe bomber,' used in his 2001 attempt to down an airliner.
PETN was widely used in the plastic explosives terrorists used to blow up airplanes in the 1970s and 1980s.
Investigators say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid an explosive device on his body when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit.
They say PETN was hidden in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso.
Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid.
One law enforcement official said the second part of the explosive concoction used in the Christmas Day incident is still being tested but appears to be a glycol-based liquid explosive.
PETN is the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions and can be collected by scraping the insides of the wire, said James Crippin, a Colorado explosives expert.
It is also used in military devices and found in blasting caps. PETN is the high explosive of choice because it is stable and safe to handle, but it requires a primary explosive to detonate it.
Crippin and law enforcement officials said modern airport screening machines could have detected the chemical.
Airport 'puffer' machines - the devices that blow air on to a passenger to collect and analyse residues - would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab.However, most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives.
Hidden in Abdulmutallab's clothing, the explosive might have also been detected by the full-body imaging scanners now making their way into airports. But Abdulmutallab did not go through full-body imaging machines in Nigeria or Amsterdam, said U.S. Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.
Both airports have body scanners.
The Amsterdam airport has had a long reputation for good security, King said, while Nigeria's airports have been more of a concern. The U.S. provided full-body scanners to all four international airports in Nigeria, according to the State Department.
The scanners were installed in March, May and June of 2008.
Abdulmutallab was on a broad U.S. terrorist watch list but he was not designated for special screening measures or placed on a no-fly list because of a dearth of specific information about his activities, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
She added that he was properly screened before getting on the aircraft in Amsterdam.
Abdulmutallab has claimed to law enforcement officials that he received training and instructions from al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
The Saudi Arabia assassination attempt was carried out by a Saudi who was on the country's list of 85 most wanted terrorists.
The bomber was believed to have traveled to Yemen to connect with the al-Qaeda group there.
He died in the explosion and is believed to have attached the explosives to his groin or inserted them inside himself.
Under arrest: The moment the bomber was secured by officers was captured by passenger Jasper Schuringa
'He went in bravely without fear of death': Abdulmutallab pictured by Al Qaeda alongside its statement
Caught: Abdulmutallab in custody Bomb plot: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's charred underwear where he hid explosives
Detonator: The remains of a syringe full of chemicals which was injected into the explosive
Device: The packet of PETN explosive powder which failed to detonate properly
* Images show bomber hid explosives in his underpants * Al Qaeda say they were behind Christmas Day plot * Passengers suggest Abdulmutallab had accomplices * Obama: We won't rest until we have all those involved
These are the first pictures of the explosives sewn into the underwear of the Christmas Day plane bomber.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled a packet of explosives on board the Amsterdam-Detroit plane by sewing it into the crotch of his underpants.
As the transatlantic flight neared its close, the 23-year-old attempted to detonate the bomb by injecting the packet with a chemical-filled syringe.
But it failed to work properly, setting on fire and leaving the young Nigerian with severe burns to his groin after he was brought under control by passengers and police.
The pictures show the singed underwear and the packet of explosive powder, as well as the plastic syringe which Abdulmutallab used to inject the chemicals.
They were released by ABC News after Al Qaeda announced last night that it was behind the jet bomb plot.
The terrorist group said it provided Abdulmutallab with a 'technically advanced device' but it had failed to detonate because of a fault.
A statement posted on Islamist websites said the attack was a response to U.S. attacks on the group in Yemen. It showed a picture of Abdulmutallab referring to him as Umar Farouk al-Nigiri - the Nigerian.
'He managed to penetrate all devices and modern advanced technology and security checkpoints in international airports bravely without fear of death,' said the statement.
'Relying on God and defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all they spent on security technology.' Abdulmutallab was overpowered by passengers and then arrested aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
He has told the FBI he was tutored in terrorism while living for a month with a senior Al Qaeda commander in Yemen.
He is said to have warned that other young men are being trained there to bring down U.S. airlines, boasting: 'There are plenty more like me.' *
In an extraordinary twist which will increase concerns over security failures, an American lawyer claimed he had watched at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport as Abdulmutallab was assisted by a 'second man' as he tried to board without a passport.
Kurt Haskell, who was standing in line with his wife Lori on Christmas morning, said the Nigerian was with a man aged about 50 of Indian appearance in an expensive suit talking with the ticket agent.
Mr Haskell said the second man claimed Abdulmutallab was from Sudan and had no passport. The ticket agent referred the men to her manager down the hall, and Mr Haskell did not see Abdulmutallab again until after the failed bombing.
If true, the claim would represent an astonishing breach of security at a major international airport and a flagrant disregard of both U.S. government and airline policy.
U.S. authorities did not comment on Mr Haskell's claims but Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano admitted on U.S. television that the aviation security system had 'failed'.
A Dutch military police spokesman said: 'At this moment we have no information on whether there was another guy. We are checking all clues and information we get.' He said the Dutch counter-terrorism agency was reviewing CCTV recordings to check out the accomplice story.
Further suggestions of an accomplice came from another passenger, Patricia Keepman, who says she saw a man calmly filming the whole flight - including the attempted detonation.
Mrs Keepman was travelling back from Ethiopia with her husband, daughter and two newly adopted children, and was sitting around 20 rows back from Abdulmutallab.
The other man 'sat up and videotaped the entire thing, very calmly. We do know that the FBI is looking for him intensely,' she said.
She described the sound when Abdulmutallab tried to detonate his bomb as like an 'electrical pop'.
'Everybody looked above their seats, kind of like startled, panicked. Shortly thereafter, we heard the screams,' she said.
The group were too far back to see what was happening and just clutched each other for comfort.
Mrs Keepman said: 'The holding hands gave us a real sense of peace. If it happened that point, it would happen. We were ready. We just weren't ready for it to happen for the kids.
'We just kept thinking "God didn't bring us this far, to go through all of this, to shorten these kids' lives" and sure enough, He didn't.'
President Barack Obama said last night: 'A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists.
'Those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will do more than just strengthen our defences,' said Mr Obama.
'We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere.' In London, Home Secretary Alan Johnson revealed that Abdulmutallab had been placed on a UK watch list this year after authorities refused to renew his student visa.
He said police and MI5 were examining whether the deeply-religious son of one of Africa's richest men had been radicalised during three years studying engineering at University College London.
He also hinted at the involvement of others, adding: 'We don't know yet whether it was a single-handed plot or there were other people behind it - I suspect it's the latter rather than the former.'
Mr Johnson did not elaborate on his belief that Abdulmutallab had received help, but Scotland Yard detectives and MI5 have both been focused on the importance of his London links.
The 23-year-old appears to have been lonely and torn between extreme Islamic views and liberalism, according to internet posts he wrote a few years ago.
He posted hundreds of messages on Facebook and Islamic chatrooms between 2005 and 2007 asking for advice about loneliness, marriage and the Muslim faith, according to the Washington Post.
One written in January 2005 said: 'I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems.'
Writing under the name Farouk1986, he talked of Arabic language studies in Yemen, plans to apply to U.S. universities and his 'dilemma between liberalism and extremism' as a devout Muslim.
'How should one put the balance right? I strive to life my daily live (sic) according to the quran and sunnah to the best of my ability. I do almost everything, sports, TV, books,' he said.
Abdulmutallab is reported to have 'crossed the radar' of MI5 while in the UK officers are seeking to establish whether he had contact with extremists.
Throughout the weekend search teams combed the £2million flat in a mansion block in Mansfield Road, close to Oxford Street, where he lived in the capital with some of his 15 brothers and sisters.
Confirming that Abdulmutallab had been refused a new visa in May and placed on a watch list, Mr Johnson said it would have prevented him entering the UK but allowed him to pass through a British airport to another country. The U.S. authorities should have been informed of this, he added.
Abdulmutallab was also on a U.S. watch list, although it allowed him to travel on planes flying into the country.
HE LED UNIVERSITY'S EXTREME ISLAMIC SOCIETY
The syringe bomber was president of a notoriously extreme student Islamic Society while studying in Britain, it emerged last night.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is believed to have been radicalised during his time at University College London, swapped western clothing for a skull cap and Islamic robes during his final year of an engineering degree in 2007/8.
UCL Provost Malcolm Grant confirmed that Abdulmutallab was president of the university's Islamic Student Society in 2006/07 and had graduated in mechanical engineering.
He said today: 'The account I have had from his tutors is that he was a well-mannered student, quietly spoken, polite and able, and gave no indication at all of what his inclinations might be.
'We are very shocked by what has happened and we will be reflecting on it very carefully as further details emerge and reviewing all aspects of it, but - as presently advised - there was nothing about his conduct which gave his tutors any cause for concern.'
He added: 'We admit our students wholly on merit. We make no reference to their political, racial or religious background or beliefs. That is fundamental to what we do. So we can't vet students in any effective way at that point.'
A source at UCL said: 'When he started you wouldn't even have known that he was a Muslim, but then in the third year he started wearing the white flowing Islamic robes and skull cap.
'We were all very shocked when we saw that he was involved in trying to blow up a plane - it seemed completely out of character.'
The organisation last month provoked fury by inviting the extremist cleric Abu Usamah to address students.
The preacher has previously claimed that homosexuals and opponents of Islam should be killed, that women are mentally deficient and that Britain should become an Islamic state. The university called off the event after protests by human rights campaigners.
Prof. Grant said the invitation was swiftly withdrawn when it became apparent how dangerous the individual was.
He said: 'We are committed - as all proper universities must be - to securing academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus. We are obliged under Government legislation to secure freedom of speech on campus and that includes for visiting speakers.
'We walk a very narrow line between allowing that to occur but on the other hand ensuring that nothing occurs which would result in the incitement of racial hatred.'
MENACE OF THE Mushing BOGUS COLLEGES
The spread of a bogus college industry catering for fake students from abroad has long been a concern to those worried about illegal immigration.
But the past few months have proved that the network of well over 2,000 colleges suspected to have been immigration fronts has also provided cover for terrorists.
The exploitation of the student immigration racket by terror groups was confirmed in April in the arrest of 12 suspects in a botched police operation. Ten of them were in England-on student visas.
The fiasco of the arrests - made in a panic after Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick sauntered into a Downing Street with his documents on show to photographers - was followed by a failure to charge any of the suspects.
But an independent inquiry into the affair by Lord Carlile confirmed that intelligence evidence linked the group to a 'very significant international plot'.
He condemned the bogus colleges with 'non- existent courses' and called for 'a higher level of vigilance'.
* Al Qaeda warned of fresh terror attack on December 21 * New security measures will mean increased delays at airport * President Obama orders review of airline security * Alleged bomber was on security database but wasn't considered threat * Student suspect was barred from Britain
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Detroit bound Delta Airlines plane on Christmas day
Hero: Jasper Schuringa who tackled Abdulmutallab on Flight 253
Dr Umaru Abdulmutallab, the rich father of Delta plane attack suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has warned to authorities about his son fanatic views.
Drama: The moment the bomber was taken into custody, as captured on a mobile phone
Injected a liquid into powder packets tie on leg and cause smoke and fire to occur.Bad burn on legs.
A page from the FBI affidavit against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
A still from an internet video posted online on December 21, showing a man who calls himself Mohammed al-Kalwi (right), warning of a new terror attack
* Al Qaeda warned of fresh terror attack on December 21 * New security measures will mean increased delays at airport * President Obama orders review of airline security * Alleged bomber was on security database but wasn't considered threat * Student suspect was barred from Britain
President Obama ordered an urgent review of airline security tonight, demanding to know how a former British student identified as a terror risk was allowed to board transatlantic plane before attempting to blow it up.
The move came as a second incident on a plane at the same airport caused a major security scare.
A man was removed from the flight after becoming verbally disruptive on landing. It later transpired he posed no security risk.
Tonight it also emerged that Al Qaeda had warned of a terror attack just days before the attempt to bring down the jet carrying 278 passengers.
In a chilling video posted on an extremist internet on December 21, a bearded man in head-dress warned: 'We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God.'
The man, identified as Mohammed al-Kalwi, continued: 'O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America.
Tonight there were question marks over why known radical Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was allowed to evade security, as it became clear just how close he came to downing the jet.
Even his millionaire father had warned authorities that he believed his son may be a risk.
President Obama wants to know how he was allowed to board the plane and also ordered a review of security watch-lists in the US after it emerged the Nigerian was placed on a list as a terror risk.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on American news channel NBC the President called for 'a review to ... figure out why an individual with the chemical explosive he had on him could get on a plane in Amsterdam and fly into the United States.' It has emerged that Abdulmutallab tried to emulate convicted terrorist Richard Reid by using the same PETN high explosive the shoe bomber used in his failed airliner attack in 2001.
After sitting silently for most of the eight-hour flight, he made his move on Christmas morning as the plane approached Detroit.
The 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker was charged in hospital last night with attempting to destroy the aircraft during its final approach to Detroit airport on Christmas Day, the US Justice Department said.
Four weeks ago Abdulmutallab's father told the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that he was concerned about his son's religious beliefs. This information was passed on to U.S. intelligence officials.The alleged bomber was also on a separate U.S. terror database, but was not considered an immediate threat. His name was absent from 'no-fly' lists.
Abdulmutallab, who had previously been living in a luxury mansion block while studying at University College London, was also charged with with placing a destructive device on the Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Abdulmutallab had a device attached to his body when he boarded the aircraft in Amsterdam on Christmas Eve.
As the flight was approaching Detroit Airport, he was said to have set off the device, which resulted in a fire and what appears to have been an explosion.
A preliminary FBI analysis found that it contained a high explosive known as PETN or pentaerythritol. FBI agents were also said recovered what appeared to be the remnants of the syringe found near Abdulmutallab's seat, which is believed to have been part of the device. The use of small amounts of liquids and powder suggests he managed to circumvent the ban on taking all but limited quantities of liquids on to flights.
As a result, beefed-up security measures have been introduced on flights bound for the US.
They include extra body and hand luggage searches at the departure gate and a requirement that passengers remain seated for the final hour of flight. Air Canada has also said that during the last hour passengers will not be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps. Passengers have been told to expect delays.
Meanwhile, the suspect's former teacher revealed his fellow pupils nicknamed him 'The Pope' because he was so well-liked.
But Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught history at the British International School in Lome, Togo, says that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab also defended the Taliban during a lesson and complaining when Rimmer took classmates to a London pub.
Rimmer also revealed how Abdulmutallab had many Christian friends at the school.
In a telephone interview today, he described the school as a multicultural place where Christians students participated in Islamic feasts and Muslims often sang Christmas carols.
US attorney general Eric Holder said: 'Had this alleged plot to destroy an airplane been successful, scores of innocent people would have been killed or injured.
'We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously, and we will use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice.'
According to the affidavit, interviews with the passengers and crew of Flight 253 revealed that before the incident Abdulmutallab went to the aircraft's bathroom for approximately 20 minutes.
When he returned to his seat, he said that he had an upset stomach and pulled a blanket over himself.
Passengers then heard what were described as popping noises similar to firecrackers and some reported seeing Abdulmutallab's trouser leg and the inner wall of the aircraft on fire.
Film producer Jasper Schuringa from Amsterdam was sitting in seat 20G when the device ignited. He leapt over the back of the seat and scrambled over four other passengers to pummel Abdulmutallab. Mr Schuringa then saw a ‘burning object’ – which he said resembled a small, white shampoo bottle – between the student’s legs. Mr Schuringa said: ‘It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs. I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands then threw it away.’
He screamed: ‘Water! Water!’ as he pulled Abdulmutallab out of his seat and dragged him to the front of the plane.
Fellow passengers poured bottles of water on the blaze, while flight attendants tackled the flames with fire extinguishers. Mr Schuringa said Abdulmutallab seemed dazed. ‘He was staring into nothing,’ he said.
The producer said he then stripped off Abdulmutallab’s clothes to make sure he did not have other explosives on his body. A crew member helped handcuff him.
He said other passengers applauded as he walked back to his seat.
‘I don’t feel like a hero,’ he said: ‘It was something that came completely naturally. I had to do something or it would be too late. My hands are pretty burned, but I am fine.
I am shaken up. I am happy to be here.’
A fellow passenger, Stephanie van Herk, 22, who was sitting one row in front of Abdulmutallab, said she heard a loud bang, then saw a flame leap from the student’s lap as smoke filled the air. ‘The flame was higher than the seat,’ she said.
‘Then everyone started screaming. It was panic. Flight attendants shouted, “What are you doing? What are you doing?’’
‘They called for water and the man began pulling down his burning trousers.’
Another passenger, Melinda Dennis, said: ‘Abdulmutallab’s entire leg was burned. But he didn’t show any reaction to the pain.’
Abdulmutallab was to have been 'calm and lucid' throughout the incident.
When one flight attendant asked him what he had had in his pocket, and he replied: 'explosive device.'
On landing, Abdulmutallab was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Centre for treatment to his injuries. He will make his initial court appearance today.
US District Judge Paul Borman read out the charges to Abdulmutallab in a conference room at the medical centre where he is continuing to receive treatment for burns.
Agents brought him into the room in a wheelchair, a blanket over his lap and wearing a green hospital robe.
Abdulmutallab - who was said to have been travelling on a valid US visa - initially boarded a KLM flight in Lagos, Nigeria, before transferring to the Northwest Airlines flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
Following his arrest he was said to have told US investigators that he had been acting on instructions from al Qaeda which instructed him to blow up an airliner over American soil.
Gordon Brown said the Government would take 'whatever action was necessary' to protect airline passengers.
Security sources said that both the police and MI5 were diverting extra staff and resources to the investigation as a matter of priority in order to establish the significance of the 'London link'.
They acknowledged that it was possible that Abdulmutallab may have cropped up in the peripheries of other counter-terrorism investigations.
Earlier in London, police search teams were seen entering the imposing mansion block in Mansfield Road, close to Oxford Street, where Abdulmutallab had been living. Records showed that flats in the block sold this year for between £1.65 million and £3.15 million.
Both police and college sources confirmed that Abdulmutallab had been enrolled as a student at University College London on a course in mechanical engineering between 2005 and 2008.
Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a former minister and chairman of First Bank in Nigeria, also confirmed his son Umar had studied in London before going travelling.
He said he was not sure of his son's whereabouts but that he had not lived in London 'for some time'. Nigeria's This Day newspaper reported family members as saying that Abdulmutallab's father was uncomfortable with his son's extreme Islamic views.
Mr Mutallab was said to have reported his activities to the US embassy in Abuja as well as Nigerian security agencies.
According to reports, the family claim Abdulmutallab was radicalised while attending the British International School in Lome, the capital of Togo.
Briton Michael Rimmer, who claimed to have taught the suspect, told BBC News 24: 'I remember him talking about Afghanistan - when the Taliban were in control, he thought they were OK. It did surprise me.' However, a cousin of Abdulmutallab, Mohammed Mutallab, told the Sunday Telegraph that the family believed the alleged bomber had been radicalised in Britain.
A US law enforcement source said Abdulmutallab's name surfaced on at least one US intelligence database but not to the extent that he was placed on a watch list or a no-fly list.
Intelligence and anti-terrorism officials in Yemen were also investigating claims by the suspect that he picked up the explosive device and instructions on how to use it in that country.
Delays were caused at UK airports today as security was stepped up for passengers flying to the US. Questions were raised over how the suspect was able to board the plane in Holland and almost cause catastrophe on Christmas Day.
Mr Brown said he had been contact with Sir Paul Stephenson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, because of the 'serious potential threat'.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said police were working with their American counterparts to establish the full background to the incident.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said delays were caused to transatlantic flights as a result of heightened security.
Although general airport security remained the same with no change to luggage and liquid restrictions, passengers travelling to the US were told they could only take one item of hand luggage.
The alleged Christmas Day terrorist had been in one of the U.S. government's many terror databases since November after his father brought him to the attention of embassy officials in Nigeria.
However, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came to the attention of intelligence officials months before that, according to a U.S. government official involved in the investigation.
Still, none of the information the government had on Abdulmutallab rose to the level of putting him on the official terror watch list or no-fly list.
Abdulmutallab claimed to have received training and instructions from al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen, law enforcement officials said. He is also believed to have had Internet contact with militant Islamic radicals.
While intelligence officials said Saturday that they are taking seriously Abdulmutallab's claims that the plot originated with al-Qaeda's network inside Yemen, several added that they had to yet to see independent confirmation.
Four weeks ago, Abdulmutallab's father told the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that he was concerned about his son's religious beliefs. This information was passed on to U.S. intelligence officials.
Abdulmutallab received a valid U.S. visa in June 2008 that is good through 2010.
His is one of about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Centre and was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Intelligence officials said they lacked enough information to place him in the 400,000-person terror watch list or on the no-fly list of fewer than 4,000 people who should be blocked from air travel.
The FBI gave the "all clear" on Sunday after an investigation of what it said was a "non-serious" incident on an Amsterdam to Detroit flight.
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said a Nigerian man was taken into custody by the FBI and no explosives were found. The man went to the bathroom repeatedly and did not respond to flight attendants' direction an hour before landing.
"The Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated and the investigation shows that this is a nonserious incident and all is clear at this point," said Detroit FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtolv.
Police search a propertie in central London after a man was charged with trying to blow up a US airliner.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Detroit bound Delta Airlines plane on Christmas day
Hero: Jasper Schuringa who tackled Abdulmutallab on Flight 253
Dr Umaru Abdulmutallab, the rich father of Delta plane attack suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.Mr Mutallab had warned the authorities about his son's extreme views.
Drama: The moment the bomber was taken into custody, as captured on a mobile phone
The exclusive block of flats in central London where the suspect lived until 2008
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is thought to have tried to cut ties with his family.
Mr Abdulmutallab's family said they would cooperate with any enquiry
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day, appears to have lived a life of privilege.
As the son of one of Nigeria's most prominent businessmen he had access to international travel and a world-class education. He has been described by one former British teacher as a dream student.
But people close to him have said he was increasingly showing extremist views in recent years. His family told the BBC they had not heard from him since October.
Mr Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, said he had approached the US and Nigerian authorities to warn them about his son's views six months before the alleged attempt to destroy the flight to Detroit.
Nigerian media quoted Mr Mutallab, an influential banker who is well connected in Nigerian politics, as saying his son first became radicalised while studying in Lome, Togo.
Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught him history at the British School in Lome (BSL), told the BBC Mr Abdulmutallab had been "every teacher's dream - very keen, enthusiastic, very bright, very polite".
He had excelled in Islamic scholarship at the British school and gained a reputation for preaching to other students, said Mr Rimmer.
Mr Rimmer said his former student had always been "very religious" and occasionally aired opinions which were "a bit over the top".
"In 2001 we had a number of class discussions about the Taliban. All the other Muslim kids in the class thought they were just a bunch of nutters, but Umar spoke in their defence," said Mr Rimmer.
But he assumed Mr Abdulmutallab was "just playing devil's advocate, trying to keep the discussion going".
Mr Rimmer said that if his former student had carried out the attempted bombing, it would be "such a terrible waste" and his parents would be devastated.
Efemena Mokedi, a classmate of Mr Abdulmutallab and who played on the same basketball team, said he was shocked to hear what had happened.
"You would never expect this coming from him, he's a very good guy, a very good chap to hang out with," he told the BBC.
"He was very sociable, he comes from a wealthy background, he's well educated ... the numbers do not add up," he said.
Contact severed
Between 2005 and 2008, Mr Abdulmutallab is thought to have been enrolled on a course in mechanical engineering at the prestigious University College London.
The college confirmed that a student of that name had attended during that time but could not say if it was the same person.
Media reports say Mr Abdulmutallab lived in comfort during his studies, in an apartment in a smart neighbourhood of west London which has since been raided by British police.
After graduating in 2008, he told his family he wanted to continue learning, by moving to an Arab country to study Arabic.
His family told the BBC Mr Abdulmutallab's parents decided to send him to Dubai to study for a post-graduate degree in business management, thinking he would benefit from its cosmopolitan nature and would not be exposed to extremist influences.
But despite his parents' objections, he abandoned the course before it was finished, saying he was no longer interested and had found an alternative course in Yemen.
He said the seven-year programme would cost nothing and that it did not matter if his Nigerian passport expired - he would be able to obtain a Yemeni one.
When his mother contacted him to urge him to reconsider, Mr Abdulmutallab told her not to get in touch again as he had found "a new life" and they no longer had any ties to him.
It was at this point, the BBC was told, that Mr Mutallab attempted to travel to Yemen to bring his son home. He also sought help from the US, Nigerian and Saudi authorities, telling them he was concerned by his son's behaviour.
'Isolated incident'
The Mutallab family, who have said they will co-operate fully with any investigation, say they have had no contact with Mr Abdulmutallab since October, when he was in Yemen.
They have since been told by US officials that he left Yemen, travelling to Ethiopia and Ghana and finally Nigeria, from where he embarked on his alleged bombing mission.
Despite being on a US terrorism database, Mr Abdulmutallab was not on a list of people banned from flying in the country.
He was able to fly from Lagos to Amsterdam and then board a plane bound for Detroit with high explosives allegedly sewn into his clothing. He was badly burned when he tried to detonate the explosives, eyewitnesses said.
Mr Abdulmutallab is reported to have told investigators he had links to al-Qaeda and had received his explosives in Yemen.
But religious leaders in Nigeria have been quick to condemn his actions.
The country's Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs said the alleged attack was an "isolated incident" which did not point to a wider problem with Islamist militancy in Nigeria.
"We are embarrassed by this incident and we strongly condemn the alleged action by this young man," the Council's secretary general, Lateef Adegbite, told the AFP news agency.
"We do not think that there is any organised Islamic group in Nigeria that is inclined to such a criminal and violent act. We condemn such an extreme viewpoint and action."
