By Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter
Published: 12:25PM GMT 26 Dec 2009
The 23-year-old is said to have attempted to ignite an explosive device strapped to his leg as a Northwest Airlines flight carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew came in to land in Detroit.
He suffered second degree burns before being overpowered, while two passengers were also injured, one of whom needed hospital treatment.
A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said: “We are carrying out inquiries in conjunction with the US authorities. Searches are being conducted as part of our on-going inquiries.”
Abdulmutallab, who was a student at University College London, claimed to have picked up his device in Yemen and to be an agent of al-Qaeda. However, it is understood he later withdrew the claim that he had al-Qaeda links.
Abdulmutallab, also named elsewhere as Mutallab, is belived to have boarded KLM Flight 588 in Lagos, Nigeria bound for Amsterdam. There he connected to Northwest Airlines 253, heading for Detroit in an Airbus A330 bearing the colours of the airline's new owner, Delta.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest, enforces European carry-on luggage regulations including only allowing liquids in containers of 100ml or less that must be placed inside clear plastic bags. Connecting passengers, including those at Schiphol, should routinely reclear security when connecting from another country.
The White House said it believed the failed bomb attack was an attempted act of terrorism. Stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel, but US security sources would not specify what those were.
Airports in Nigeria do not typically conduct tests for explosive residue on passengers' carry-on baggage and shoes. However, a spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria said the airport in Lagos had cleared a US Transportation Security Administration audit in November.
A federal “situational awareness” bulletin stated. “The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.”
President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.
The suspect was on an intelligence database but was not on the government’s no-fly list, meaning he was known to authorities but not considered a high risk. According to US intelligence officials, the explosive device was a mixture of powder and liquid.
Peter T. King of New York, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the incident, said: “This was the real deal. This could have been devastating.”
A federal “situational awareness” bulletin stated. “The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.”
The Yemen link could be significant. It was reported on Christmas Eve that Yemen warplanes were believed to have killed two al-Qaeda leaders and a Muslim extremist religious leader connected with the US Army officer, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of killing Army personnel in Fort Hood, Texas last month.
The Yemen strike at 4.30 am, local time, had targeted a meeting of senior al-Qaeda operatives, 400 miles southeast of the capital, Sana’a. Al-Qaeda has used bases in Yemen to strike Western targets inside the country as well as mount cross-border attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter.
Witnesses to the Detroit attack said that they saw the suspect - who was in seat 19A - emerge from the toilet with a pillow held over his stomach.
Peter Smith, a passenger on the Detroit plane, said: “It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase. First there was a pop, and then there was smoke.”
Another passenger Syed Jafri, who was three rows away, said: “There was a pop and everyone was startled. Then there was flames and fire and people started to panic. A young man behind me jumped on him. Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic,” he said.
Shortly afterwards, the suspect was apparently taken to a front row seat with his trousers cut off and his legs burned.
The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers. Reid is serving a life sentence.
ABC News said that Abdulmutullab was flying from Nigeria to the United States for a religious ceremony, according to his entry visa. This was said to have been issued on June 16 last year and was valid until June 12, 2010.
There was nothing out of the ordinary until the flight was on final approach to Detroit, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said. That was when the pilot declared an emergency and landed at 11.51am local time.
The Homeland Security Department encouraged travellers to be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behaviour.
It also became unclear today whether the suspect had ties to a terrorist organization or had attempted the attack on his own, authorities said. Despite earlier reports that he had claimed a connection to al-Qaeda, Mutallab apparently denied any such link in later statements to FBI agents interrogating him.
“Right now he is saying he was not part of an organization or a coordinated effort. I want to caution people from jumping headlong into the Al Qaeda link because it’s a very murky area,” an anti-terrorism official told the Los Angeles Times.
Dr Sally Leivesley, a terrorism expert, told BBC News: “This looks as though it is a first attempt of a new way to use the body to conceal explosives. In the past it was a can of liquid explosive.
“Now they may be concealing the explosives on the human body, but on the inside upper leg, and we only know this by seeing a very badly burnt leg on the suspected perpetrator.” She said the suspect may have used a syringe to conceal a chemical used for detonation
Kieran Daly, an expert in aviation security, said that installing the type of security at airports to combat terrorism of the kind attempted on the Christmas Day Detroit-bound flight could be extremely costly and take a very long time. “The global task of getting that equipment installed will be very, very difficult within the sort of timescale that is required,” he said.
“The latest incident could in some respects be described as a success in that it shows that would-be terrorists are now having to resort to trying to get very small devices on board planes. Thanks to increased security, the sort of devices are now not big enough to actually bring down a plane. The terrorists have had to resort to more and more inadequate devices and they are a very long way from actually bringing down an aircraft.”
Mr Daly, the former editor of internet news service Air Transport Intelligence, said that security was also being helped by the fact that terrorists, seeking maximum publicity and impact, were concentrating on the airport and routes where security was actually at its most efficient. “It would be far easier for the bombers to single out, say, a third world route, where perhaps security was not so tight,” he said.
