Terror Attempt Seen as Man Tries to Ignite Device on Jet

A Nigerian man tried to ignite an explosive device aboard a transatlantic Northwest Airlines flight as the plane prepared to land in Detroit on Friday, in an incident the United States believes was “an attempted act of terrorism,” according to a White House official who declined to be identified.
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Times Topics: Airplane Accidents and Incidents

The device, described by officials as a mixture of powder and liquid, failed to fully detonate. Passengers on the plane described a series of pops that sounded like firecrackers.

Federal officials said the man wanted to bring the plane down.

“This was the real deal,” said Representative Peter T. King of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the incident and said something had gone wrong with the explosive device, which he described as somewhat sophisticated. “This could have been devastating,” Mr. King said.

It was unclear how the man, identified by federal officials as Abdul Mudallad, 23, managed to get the explosive on the plane, an Airbus A330 wide-body jet carrying 278 passengers that had originated in Nigeria with a stop in Amsterdam. A senior administration official said that the government did not yet know whether the man had had the capacity to take down the plane.

“We’re trying to ascertain exactly what he had and what he thought he was doing, but our sense is he wanted to wreak some havoc here and was attempting to do just that,” the official said. “Whether at the end of the day he had the ability to do that is what I think we’ll be able to pull together over the next several days as we investigate this.”

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said that the device Mr. Mudallad had on him was “more incendiary than explosive,” and that he had tried to ignite the device or mixture to cause a fire as the airliner was approaching Detroit.

Mr. Mudallad told law enforcement authorities, the official said, that he had had explosive powder taped to his leg and that he had used a syringe of chemicals to mix with the powder to try to cause an explosion.

A federal counterterrorism official who asked not to be identified said Mr. Mudallad was apparently in a government law enforcement-intelligence data base, but it is 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 Mr. Mudallad is said to have told officials that he was directed by Al Qaeda, the counterterrorism official expressed caution about that claim, saying “it may have been aspirational.”

The incident unfolded just before noon. Passengers who were on the plane said they had heard a loud pop, smelled smoke and then seen flames in one area of the plane.

The suspect was quickly subdued as the plane — Northwest Airlines flight 253, operated on a Delta airplane — made its descent into Detroit Metropolitan Airport, landing at 11:53 a.m. (The two airlines merged last year.) Once on the ground, it was immediately guided to the end of a runway, where it was surrounded by police cars and emergency vehicles and searched by a bomb-disabling robot.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the plane was moved to a remote area where the plane and all baggage are currently being re-screened,” the Transportation Security Administration said Friday night. “A passenger is in custody and passengers are being interviewed.”

Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit office, said F.B.I. agents were at the scene Friday night and were investigating the matter. She declined comment when asked questions about Mr. Mudallad and any possible ties to terrorism.

One federal official who requested anonymity said Mr. Mudallad had suffered severe burns but was expected to survive. The man was admitted to the University of Michigan’s hospital in Ann Arbor, according to a senior state official who insisted on anonymity.

President Obama was kept informed throughout the day as he spent the Christmas holiday with his family and friends at a secluded Hawaiian beach house. After a secure conference call, he was given several follow-up briefings on paper. John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, convened an interagency meeting in the late afternoon to go over what was known about the incident and what precautions should be taken.

A second Department of Homeland Security official said the Transportation Security Administration used layers of security measures at the nation’s airports and that it would be tightening them as a result of the incident in Detroit.

These measures — some visible to passengers, some not — include bomb-sniffing dog teams, carry-on luggage and passenger screening measures, and plainclothes behavioral-detection specialists inside airport terminals. The official said there were no immediate plans to elevate the nation’s threat level, which has been at orange since 2006.

Mr. King, of the Homeland Security committee, said there was no indication at this point that anyone else was involved, but he said officials would look back to see if any intelligence signals were missed. “For a while now we have had real concerns about Al Qaeda or terrorist connections in Nigeria,” he said.

Of the device used on Friday, he said, “It appears to be different from explosive devices that have been used before. That is perhaps why it escaped detection. Maybe that is why it made it through.”

Anahad O’Connor reported from New York, and Peter Baker from Hawaii. Eric Lipton and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, and Micheline Maynard and Bill Vlasic from Detroit.
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