Explosive device set off aboard airliner at Detroit Wayne International Airport

[Kevin23]

Apparently a Nigerian National on a transatlantic flight that originated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Attempted to ignite an explosive aboard the aircraft.

Here is a link to a news story about the incident, and I apologize if this has been posted previously this evening on the forums

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/12/25...ers/index.html

[pjmunson]

Looking forward to the ineffective security theater harrassment that this will produce at the airport for the post-holiday flights.

Two articles with further links on the theatrics that pass for security at our airports:

Economist's Gulliver Blog

Atlantic article

We need to separate and be honest about the components of airline security: the things that actually can defeat attacks (most of which should happen well prior to the TSA security check at the airport), the things that deter attackers from trying even though they won't defeat a trained attacker (the TSA security check), and the things that are wrongheadedly added in for good measure to make people feel like the government is doing something and/or is being fair (half-assed harrassment of grandma whose body language, travel documents, IDs, luggage, etc shows that she isn't trying to pull anything over, but doing a frisk on her anyway that is embarassing, annoying, and insulting, but would not find even the most poorly hidden contraband). And as one Israeli CT expert told me, we need to focus more on resilience when it comes to strategic message to our populations than fearmongering approaches that make them afraid of the threat.

[Kevin23]

Looking forward to the ineffective security theater harrassment that this will produce at the airport for the post-holiday flights.

Two articles with further links on the theatrics that pass for security at our airports:

Economist's Gulliver Blog

Atlantic article

We need to separate and be honest about the components of airline security: the things that actually can defeat attacks (most of which should happen well prior to the TSA security check at the airport), the things that deter attackers from trying even though they won't defeat a trained attacker (the TSA security check), and the things that are wrongheadedly added in for good measure to make people feel like the government is doing something and/or is being fair (half-assed harrassment of grandma whose body language, travel documents, IDs, luggage, etc shows that she isn't trying to pull anything over, but doing a frisk on her anyway that is embarassing, annoying, and insulting, but would not find even the most poorly hidden contraband). And as one Israeli CT expert told me, we need to focus more on resilience when it comes to strategic message to our populations than fearmongering approaches that make them afraid of the threat.

I agree with you on how poorly planned and conducted airport security is in the US, and it can get quite aggravating to say the least.

For example in my junior year in high about year and a half ago, I was embarking on a college program to Cambridge University at Dulles Airport in DC, my home city. At airport security I found affairs quite haphazard in the way they were conducted. As in my instance, some film I was bringing on the trip to take pictures was almost destroyed because security demanded to screen it via x-ray despite the fact that I proved that it was indeed film. While at the same time many other passengers who had more questionable items where rushed through security without the time being taken to process them.

Coming back home after the college program at Cambridge and gong through London's massive Heathrow Airport,. I found security on the other side of the Atlantic to be not much better, due to the fact that I didn't find security to be alert and vigilant, in addition I found the security station that I went through to be poorly manned. Even though I was subject to standard procedure I didn't find things as quite as through as they should be. All of this I found quite surprising for a nation that has first hand experience dealing with the IRA, acts of state sponsored terrorism, and recently violent Islamic Jihadists.

I therefore agree with you fullheartedly that incompetent security and mindless/illogical harassment at airport security is not only aggravating but is also a threat.

[davidbfpo]

On first reading of the few reports it is amazingly similar to Richard Reid, the "Shoe bomber" a few years ago and why attempt to ignite the device when at the end of the journey? Secondly, if this is a genuine AQ plot, it is remarkable that an attack on air transport features; an activity supposedly with such high security features. Note the references to: no secondary screening and no hand baggage - for a young Nigerian adult male.

[Schmedlap]

Speaking of airport security...

I was selected to be one of the passengers who got the more thorough inspection on a flight out of Atlanta a few years back. This had happened to me before, because I often purchased tickets online, on short notice. However, this time was different. I was flying on a gov't flight, paid for and checked in with a gov't credit card, I showed my military ID when I got my tickets and while going through screening, and only 15 minutes earlier I checked an M4 and M9 in a hard shell case. The screener apologized to me a few times while quickly going through the motions of the inspection, realizing how absurd it was. I didn't care - I laughed.

[Firn]

Speaking of airport security...

I was selected to be one of the passengers who got the more thorough inspection on a flight out of Atlanta a few years back. This had happened to me before, because I often purchased tickets online, on short notice. However, this time was different. I was flying on a gov't flight, paid for and checked in with a gov't credit card, I showed my military ID when I got my tickets and while going through screening, and only 15 minutes earlier I checked an M4 and M9 in a hard shell case. The screener apologized to me a few times while quickly going through the motions of the inspection, realizing how absurd it was. I didn't care - I laughed.

You were clearly singled out for very good reasons - too obvious ones to tell you.

Were not practically all of the plots or bombings concerning aircrafts comitted by persons which fitted to a often surprising degree the risk profiles? I know this is a rather sensitive topic, but given the limited time and ressources for security checks the overall effort should focus on them, while keeping up a (far) more irregular/sparse pattern for intensiv checks for other profiles.


Firn


P.S: Good to hear that this obviously timed bombing was prevented. Kudos to the crew and the passenger(s).

[slapout9]

On first reading of the few reports it is amazingly similar to Richard Reid, the "Shoe bomber" a few years ago and why attempt to ignite the device when at the end of the journey?

David,maybe because at the end of the journey he would not only kill the passengers and destroy the plane but he would also disrupt Airport operations all in one strike. Thoughts?

[bourbon]

David,maybe because at the end of the journey he would not only kill the passengers and destroy the plane but he would also disrupt Airport operations all in one strike. Thoughts?

Maybe. I think it was for the purpose of sending the message.

Triggering it over the mid Atlantic would optimize the chance of success; even if the bomb did not completely destroy it, the plane would have to continue to fly for some time and could still crash if the bomb did significant damage. He didn’t do this.

I don’t know the flight path. But I imagine an Amsterdam to Detroit flight does not fly much over the USA, probably flies more over Canada then comes into Detroit from the NW. If so, there would only be a small timeframe of flight over the US – at the end of the journey on the approach to Detroit.

In the mind of a terrorist blowing up a jetliner over the continental United States sends more of a message then it does blowing one up over the Atlantic or Canada.

[Uboat509]

David,maybe because at the end of the journey he would not only kill the passengers and destroy the plane but he would also disrupt Airport operations all in one strike. Thoughts?

I wonder if it isn't something much more simple. Perhaps it just took him that long to work up the courage. I would imagine that even suicide bombers have to work themselves up to the task and I know that some never get there.

SFC W