Eversince the September 11, 2001 terrorist hijackings of 4 commercial jetliners and sending 2 of them crashing like missiles into the World Trade Center, New York and 1 into the Pentagon at Arlington, Virginia (with the fourth missing its target and crashing into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania), air travel has never been the same again. Despite new security measures put in place since then at airports around the world, the question remains as to how safe is air travel today.
This week 2 major breaches of airport security occured. First, 25-year old Habib, an Indian national from Uttar Pradesh in India somehow managed to board an Air India flight from Saudi Arabia to Jaipur in India. Nothing unusual about that surely, except that Habib did not have a ticket or a passport with him.
Habib works with a Saudi ground handling company at Medina airport in Saudi Arabia. He got onboard the Air India flight by pretnding to clean the plane. Once onboard he hid in the toilet. 30 minutes after the flight took off, the stowaway was discoverd by a passenger who went to the toilet. Police were alerted at the airport in Jaipur and Habib was arrested.
Had Habib been a terrorist, the Air India plane could be destroyed. The jetliner was carrying 273 Haj pilgrims back home. This surely must be a serious breach of airline security.
The other major breach of airport security is more serious. 23-year old Nigerian engineering graduate Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged by US authorities with trying to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day as Delta (Northwest) Airways flight 253 with 278 passengers onboard was about to land at Detroit. The flight originated in Amsterdam.
Investigations reveal that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab went to the plane’s toilet and stayed for approximately 20 minutes. On returning to his window seat, he claimed to have a stomach upset and pulled a blanket over his body. Shortly after that, others passengers were shocked to hear a sound resembling a firecracker in a pillowcase.
Jasper Schuringa, a fellow passenger who was the first to tackled Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab described what happened next: “A fire started under his seat. I was calling for water, water. But then the fire was getting a little worse. So I grabbed the suspect out of the seat, because, if there was any more explosives on him, that would have been very dangerous. And then the flight attendants came. We took him to first class and stripped him to make sure he had no more weapons on him. It was very quick. Everyone was panicking.”
What was Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab’s reacton? Jasper Schuringa said: “He was shaking. He didn’t resist anything. It’s just hard to believe that he was trying to blow up this plane. He was in a trance. He was very afraid.”
But was was Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab trying to do? It seems that Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab was trying to detonate an explosive device attached to his body. Interestingly, the device contained PETN, also known as Pentaerythritol, the same plastic explosive used by convicted al-Qaeda “shoe bomber” Richard Reid in December 2001.
Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab apparently injected a detonating liquid into the PETN with a syringe. This probably was intended to cause an explosion, but something went wrong – it caused a fire instead, and Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab ended up with third degree burns on his legs.
But who is Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab? He is the son of a prominent Nigerian former banker and former economics minister of Nigeria. Dr Alhaji Umaru Mutallab actually alerted the US embassy in Nigeria 6 months ago that his son could pose possible risks due to his “radicalisation and associations”. He suspected that his son may have traveled to Yemen to join “some kind of jihad”.
So how did Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab manage to breach airport security and board a flight to the US? He went on a one-way ticket from Nigeria to Amsterdam, paid for in cash, then transferred to the Delta flight with no checked in luggage. These are highly suspicious flags.
70-year old Dr Alhaj Umaru Mutallab was educated in London. His son, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab too studied in London, graduating from UCL with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Authorities are particularly concerned that Umar Farouk Abdumuallab was already registered as a suspected terrorist but not prevented from flying or put on an official “watch-list” because of insufficient information. He was allowed to board the flight to the US.
So what are the authorities doing about this breach of secuirty? Now in an immediate response, travelers to the US will be confined to their seats for the last hour of their flights. During this one hour period, passengers will be prevented from accessing overhead lockers and cabin baggage or having blankets, pillows or belongings on their laps. And of course, travelers will be subject to long check-in delays as pre-boarding security screening becomes more thorough.
Think about it. How safe is air travel nowadays? Why do people kill people in the name of religion? Does jihad gives Muslims the right to kill innocent people in acts of terrorism?
Earlier posts
Remembering 9/11 Victims
British Version of 9/11 averted
Lockerbie Bomber – Web of Entanglement
War On Terror – Who Is A Terrorist?
War On Terror – Southern Thailand
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