Washington, December 27: The Nigerian national, arrested on charges of attempted act of terrorism in a Detroit bound plane, has told FBI that explosive powder was taped to his leg and he used a syringe to mix chemicals with it to cause an explosion.
The device, however, failed to fully detonate. The plane originated in Nigeria, but had its stop in Amsterdam. The 23-year-old man, identified as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, said the device was more incendiary than explosive, and that he had tried to ignite the device or mixture to cause a fire as the plane was approaching Detroit.
The Nigerian national, according to fellow passengers and investigating agencies, tried to ignite a small explosive about 25 minutes before the Northwest Airline flight 253 carrying 278 passengers was about to land at the Detroit airport. Overpowered by fellow passengers and handed over to security agencies on landing, he was being questioned by the FBI on how he managed to breach the tight security and sneak in explosive inside the plane and his links with Al-Qaeda.
ABC News and NBC News reported that he is an engineering student at University College of London. Officials described the device as incendiary rather than explosive, pending tests by forensics experts at the FBI. Incendiary devices generally deliver less of an impact than explosive devices. The White House has termed the incident as an attempted act of terrorism while the US national security agencies say it as an attempt to blow up the plane.
–Agencies