♥ Sunday, December 27
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - – "I just jumped, I didn't think," said Dutchman Jasper Schuringa, who has emerged as a Christmas Day hero for his impulsive smackdown of a terror suspect who tried to blow up a US-bound airliner.
Witnesses and authorities have praised passengers and crew for banding together to stop the suspect, identified by US authorities as Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23.
The suspect failed to fully detonate an incendiary device containing "a high explosive" that he managed to sneak past airport security and started to ignite as the jet approached Detroit.
But if Schuringa's interview with CNN is any indication, he's the one who came to the rescue of the plane's 277 other passengers and 11 crew.
"I basically reacted directly," a relaxed-looking Schuringa, clad in a gray T-shirt and with one of his hands and wrists bandaged, told the news network Saturday.
"When I saw the suspect he was getting on fire and I freaked of course, and without any hesitation jumped over the seats and jumped to the suspect because I was thinking, like, he's trying to blow up the plane."
Schuringa was seated on the right of the Northwest Airlines Airbus 330, a few rows behind Abdulmutallab who was in a window seat on the left. He said he "reacted on a bang," and when smoke and flames started billowing from the suspect's lap he clamored over fellow passengers and tackled him.
"When you hear a pop on a plane, you're awake, trust me. So I just jumped, I didn't think, and I just went, went over there and tried to save the plane, I guess."
As terrified passengers screamed and the cabin filled with smoke, the level-headed Schuringa and alert crew dragged the suspect to the front and contained him, while others put out the mini-blaze with a fire extinguisher.
"We took him to first class and there we stripped him and contained him with handcuffs and made sure he had no more weapons or bombs on him."
The Dutchman, who US media reported was a video director and producer, said that "absolutely nothing" about Abdulmutallab suggested he would try anything sinister.
"He looked like a normal guy," he said. "It was just hard to believe that he was actually going to, trying to blow up this plane."
Schuringa's effort is the latest act of mid-air bravery in the United States, some of which has reached iconic status.
For many the epitome of aviation heroism is represented by Chesley Sullenberger, the unflappable captain who landed his crippled US Airways jet in the Hudson River last January, saving everyone aboard.
For others it is the efforts of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked on September 11, 2001.
Passengers on that flight, having learned of earlier attacks that fateful day on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, mounted an assault to try and overpower the hijackers. The jet plowed into a Pennsylvania field, killing all aboard, and passengers were lauded for stopping what experts conclude was a terrorist attack in the making.
Senior US politicians, while not mentioning Schuringa by name, hailed the passengers and crew on the Christmas Day flight who apprehended the would-be Detroit airline bomber.
"We are forever indebted to the heroic passengers and flight attendants who sought to subdue the suspect," said Bennie Thompson, chairman of the homeland security committee in the House of Representatives.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement that she was "grateful to the passengers and crew aboard Northwest Flight 253 who reacted quickly and heroically to an incident that could have had tragic results."
Several witnesses said a passenger tackled Abdulmutallab and helped drag him to the front of the plane.
Schuringa said he burned his hands as he struggled to get the burning material out from between Abdulmutallab's legs.
"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away," said Schuringa, described by the New York Daily News as a Dutch video producer and director from Amsterdam.
"I had to... damp the fire, because it was growing, and fire on a plane is not good."
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - – "I just jumped, I didn't think," said Dutchman Jasper Schuringa, who has emerged as a Christmas Day hero for his impulsive smackdown of a terror suspect who tried to blow up a US-bound airliner.
Witnesses and authorities have praised passengers and crew for banding together to stop the suspect, identified by US authorities as Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23.
The suspect failed to fully detonate an incendiary device containing "a high explosive" that he managed to sneak past airport security and started to ignite as the jet approached Detroit.
But if Schuringa's interview with CNN is any indication, he's the one who came to the rescue of the plane's 277 other passengers and 11 crew.
"I basically reacted directly," a relaxed-looking Schuringa, clad in a gray T-shirt and with one of his hands and wrists bandaged, told the news network Saturday.
"When I saw the suspect he was getting on fire and I freaked of course, and without any hesitation jumped over the seats and jumped to the suspect because I was thinking, like, he's trying to blow up the plane."
Schuringa was seated on the right of the Northwest Airlines Airbus 330, a few rows behind Abdulmutallab who was in a window seat on the left. He said he "reacted on a bang," and when smoke and flames started billowing from the suspect's lap he clamored over fellow passengers and tackled him.
"When you hear a pop on a plane, you're awake, trust me. So I just jumped, I didn't think, and I just went, went over there and tried to save the plane, I guess."
As terrified passengers screamed and the cabin filled with smoke, the level-headed Schuringa and alert crew dragged the suspect to the front and contained him, while others put out the mini-blaze with a fire extinguisher.
"We took him to first class and there we stripped him and contained him with handcuffs and made sure he had no more weapons or bombs on him."
The Dutchman, who US media reported was a video director and producer, said that "absolutely nothing" about Abdulmutallab suggested he would try anything sinister.
"He looked like a normal guy," he said. "It was just hard to believe that he was actually going to, trying to blow up this plane."
Schuringa's effort is the latest act of mid-air bravery in the United States, some of which has reached iconic status.
For many the epitome of aviation heroism is represented by Chesley Sullenberger, the unflappable captain who landed his crippled US Airways jet in the Hudson River last January, saving everyone aboard.
For others it is the efforts of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked on September 11, 2001.
Passengers on that flight, having learned of earlier attacks that fateful day on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, mounted an assault to try and overpower the hijackers. The jet plowed into a Pennsylvania field, killing all aboard, and passengers were lauded for stopping what experts conclude was a terrorist attack in the making.
Senior US politicians, while not mentioning Schuringa by name, hailed the passengers and crew on the Christmas Day flight who apprehended the would-be Detroit airline bomber.
"We are forever indebted to the heroic passengers and flight attendants who sought to subdue the suspect," said Bennie Thompson, chairman of the homeland security committee in the House of Representatives.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement that she was "grateful to the passengers and crew aboard Northwest Flight 253 who reacted quickly and heroically to an incident that could have had tragic results."
Several witnesses said a passenger tackled Abdulmutallab and helped drag him to the front of the plane.
Schuringa said he burned his hands as he struggled to get the burning material out from between Abdulmutallab's legs.
"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away," said Schuringa, described by the New York Daily News as a Dutch video producer and director from Amsterdam.
"I had to... damp the fire, because it was growing, and fire on a plane is not good."
4/9 '10 loves x3 1:22 PM
♥ Saturday, December 26
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - – A Nigerian man with reported links to Al-Qaeda attempted to blow up a US airliner as it began its descent into Detroit before being tackled by passengers and crew, officials said.
Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab was badly burned in the botched Christmas Day terror attack as he tried to set off a sophisticated explosive device on the Northwest Airlines Flight which had 278 passengers on board, witnesses said.
Syed Jafry, who was sitting three rows behind the would-be bomber, described how one passenger in particular had subdued Abdulmutallab as others screamed and rushed for fire extinguishers and water.
"He took care of that suspect. He handled him pretty good," Jafry told CNN. "There was a little bit, obviously, of a struggle. And I think he took it under control."
The cabin crew then helped drag the suspect to the front of the plane and isolate him from the rest of the passengers on Flight 253 from Amsterdam.
Abdulmutallab told the authorities after being taken into custody that he had used a syringe filled with chemicals to mix with powder taped to his leg in a bid to cause an explosion, according to senior officials quoted by US media.
White House officials and US lawmakers confirmed that the incident was a terror attack and President Barack Obama, on Christmas vacation with his family in Hawaii, ordered security measures to be stepped up at airports.
"We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism," a senior White House official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
After a conference call with top security advisors, Obama "instructed that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel," the White House said.
Eight years after British-born "shoe bomber" Richard Reid tried something similar on a flight from Paris to Miami, the botched attack served as a grim reminder to Americans of the specter of air-borne terror.
It was Christmas week in 2001, when the country was still reeling from the September 11 attacks, that Reid tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jet by lighting explosives in his shoes. He is serving a life sentence in a US prison.
The incident, and especially the fact that Abdulmutallab had sought to bomb a plane with a new kind of explosive device, raised renewed concerns about airport security.
"I know it was fairly sophisticated, and from what I've heard about the way it was going to be detonated, it seems to be different from what we've seen before," Peter King, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Homeland Security committee, told US media.
"I would say we dropped the ball on this one," he added.
"My understanding also is that while he is not on a watch list, he definitely has terror connections," King told Fox news. "There is a terrorist nexus leading towards Al-Qaeda involving this assailant."
"When it did go off he himself was seriously injured, my understanding is he has third degree burns. This could have been catastrophic," King said.
Abdulmutallab was reportedly receiving treatment for third-degree burns to his legs at the University of Michigan Medical Center in the nearby Michigan city of Ann Arbor.
"We received one patient from the incident at Detroit Metro" airport, Tracy Justice, a spokeswoman from the hospital, told AFP, without confirming it was the would-be bomber.
The suspect also told the authorities he was following orders from Al-Qaeda, according to US media reports, but counter-terrorism officials said it was too early to know for sure and suggested he could have been acting alone.
US media, citing a federal security bulletin, said the man told investigators he had acquired the explosive device in Yemen, along with instructions as to when it should be used.
Sandra Berchtold, an FBI spokeswoman in Detroit, told AFP the incident was under investigation, and the Transportation Safety Administration said it had isolated the plane and was conducting additional screening.
In the Netherlands, anti-terrorism officials said the suspect had arrived at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport on a connecting flight and was not a Dutch resident. Reports said he had boarded the plane on a one-way ticket.
4/9 '10 loves x3 4:06 PM
♥ Friday, December 25
KINGSTON (AFP) - – US investigators arrived in Jamaica Wednesday to investigate the crash of an American Airlines jet that left a mangled mess on a beach but no fatalities after overshooting an airport runway.
Security was still tight around the wrecked remains of the Boeing 737-800 jet -- one of American's latest models -- that ploughed through the perimeter fence late Tuesday, skidded across a road and ended up just short of the Caribbean Sea.
One of the aircraft's engines broke off, part of the landing gear smashed and the body of the plane was cracked. Stunned passengers staggered out of the aircraft, some with broken bones, cuts and bruises, before dozens were rushed to local hospitals.
The airport was immediately closed and all flights diverted.
The airline said that only seven passengers were admitted to area hospitals for treatment, out of 148 passengers and six crew.
The US National Transportation Safety Board dispatched five aviation specialists led by senior air safety investigator John Lovell to assist the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority in reviewing the incident, which took place under heavy rain.
They were also accompanied by technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration, American Airlines, Boeing Aircraft Company and GE Aircraft Engines.
"All I know is that the plane landed and fell apart," passenger Betrie Carr-Cameron told AFP, adding that after the jet came to a halt people immediately rushed for the exits, where emergency slides were deployed.
"People were just milling around outside, freaking out," passenger Natalie Morales Hendricks told NBC's "Today" show. "There was blood... it was a mess, as you can imagine. You could smell jet fuel."
Passengers, who had first applauded what appeared to be a safe landing at the popular winter sun destination, said they did not initially realize the plane was skidding across the runway.
"I was looking at the ground trying to see if that was true, and before I knew it, you know, everything was black and we were crashing," recalled Hendricks.
Information Minister Daryl Vaz told CNN that 91 "badly shaken up" people were initially treated in hospital but that none of the injuries were deemed critical.
Flight 331 had originated at Washington's Reagan National Airport and stopped in Miami before traveling on to Kingston, where it crash landed at about 10:22 pm (0322 GMT Wednesday).
Carr-Cameron, the passenger, criticized the airport's emergency response. "We were there for about 20 minutes or more and there was no one there," she said. "What if there was a fire? We would've all died."
A spokesman for American Airlines, however, said that an emergency crew was at the scene within five minutes.
"The care of our passengers and crew members remains our highest priority, and we are grateful for the professionalism of our crew members who safely evacuated the aircraft," said American Airlines chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey.
Passenger reports said the plane initially seemed to have landed normally but then there was a loud bang before oxygen masks dropped and the fuselage began to crumble.
The airport was temporarily closed for investigators to examine the scene and for authorities to determine whether the runway was safe for take-offs and landings. Flights were diverted to Montego Bay, on the western end of Jamaica.
4/9 '10 loves x3 12:08 AM
♥ Wednesday, December 16
Boeing's Dreamliner in maiden flight
Boeing's Dreamliner in maiden flight.
EVERETT, Washington (AFP) - – Boeing's cutting-edge 787 Dreamliner has taken its milestone first flight that the US aerospace giant hopes will prove a "gamechanger" for the global aviation industry.
The Dreamliner's first flight, more than two years behind schedule, marked the beginning of a world-spanning flight test program expected to deliver the first airplane to Japanese launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) in the fourth quarter of next year, the company said.
"Today is a great day for the Boeing Company," Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, said at a news conference following the flight Tuesday.
"I assure you the 787 will be the gamechanger that it was meant to be," he said.
The mid-size, twin-aisle Dreamliner is Boeing's first new model in more than a decade. The company has based its revolutionary design on lightweight composite materials instead of aluminum to improve fuel efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. Facts: Boeing 787 Dreamliner
About half the Dreamliner is made of composite materials, such as carbon fiber-reinforced resin, compared with 12 percent for its predecessor, the Boeing 777, which made its first flight in 1994.
The Dreamliner will use 20 percent less fuel than today's airplanes of comparable size and provide airlines with up to 45 percent more cargo revenue capacity, the company said.
For passengers, the 787 means larger windows, better lighting, more storage space and cleaner, more humidified air than current airplanes, it said.
Boeing sees the 787 as the future for the industry, as well as for its commercial strategy. The 787 "will set the bar for years to come," Fancher said.
"We build things that fly so airlines can put people on board," Russ Young, a Boeing spokesman, told AFP.
The Dreamliner is an opportunity "to provide a superior flying experience at lower cost to them, which is good for their industry."
Boeing thinks the use of composites "will only grow," Young said . "It's a bold step on our part" but Boeing has done its homework and "we realize composites are ready for these kinds of applications."
Clad in Boeing test-flight blue livery, 787 emblazoned on its tail, the Dreamliner took off under overcast skies at 10:27 am (1827 GMT) at Paine Field near Boeing's Everett plant in Washington state and landed at 1:33 pm at Seattle's Boeing Field.
Chief Pilot Mike Carriker and Captain Randy Neville said they tested some of the airplane's systems and structures in the nearly three-hour flight, as on-board equipment recorded and transmitted real-time data to a flight-test team at Boeing Field.
"We smoked it," Carriker said at the news conference, calling the 787 "a great jet."
"It felt like I flew into the future of the Boeing Company."
Neville said the 787 had delivered "no surprises" and brought "back the joy of flying."
The pilots took the airplane to an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) and an air speed of 180 knots, or about 207 miles (333 kilometers) per hour, "customary on a first flight," the company said.
The first Boeing 787 will be joined in the flight test program in the coming weeks and months by five other 787s, the company said.
Chicago-based Boeing is vying with European rival Airbus for commercial supremacy. Airbus, a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, is developing a new long-haul A350 plane aimed at competing with the Dreamliner which is expected to fly in mid-2013.
Boeing launched the Dreamliner program in April 2004 and initially had planned to deliver the first airplane to ANA in the first half of 2008, a delivery now set for fourth-quarter 2010 as production problems forced the company to announce a series of delays.
The delays contributed to a 1.6-billion-dollar loss in the third quarter and Boeing has slashed this year's earnings guidance by more than a third.
Boeing says it has 840 orders on its books from 55 customers for the cutting-edge plane, which it claims is the "fastest-selling all-new jetliner in aviation history."
United Airlines announced last week it would buy 25 Dreamliners, as well as 25 A350s, with the option to buy 50 more of each aircraft.
Asked if Boeing expects phones to ring off the hook with orders after the Dreamliner's first flight, a beaming Fancher said: "Everybody's going to want to have one."
4/9 '10 loves x3 5:50 PM
♥ Sunday, December 13
By Panarat Thepgumpanat
BANGKOK - Thailand will press charges against the crew of a plane forced to land in Bangkok and found to be carrying arms from North Korea, officials said on Sunday, adding it was unclear where the plane had been going.
Military and police sources, declining to be named, said the United States had tipped the Thai authorities off about the 35 tonnes of arms that the plane held, which flouted United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
They said the five crew members -- four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus -- were saying little.
Police spokesman Pongsapat Pongcharoen said the five would be charged with illegal possession of weapons on Monday morning, adding they were denying the charge and saying they had no idea they were transporting arms.
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the authorities believed the plane had initially planned to refuel in Sri Lanka and it was not clear why the crew had asked to make an emergency landing in Bangkok to refuel and check a wheel.
"The Thai authorities acted on tips from intelligence agencies of many countries," he said, adding the crew had initially declared the cargo to be oil-drilling equipment.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thailand had acted in accordance with United Nations resolutions.
"What I understand is that the plane was to have refuelled at Sri Lanka. The goods are from North Korea. The people are from Kazhakstan and Belarus and the plane is from Georgia," he said on Thai television.
North Korea has been hit with fresh United Nations sanctions to punish it for a nuclear test in May. These are aimed at cutting off its arms sales, a vital export item estimated to earn the destitute state more than $1 billion a year.
The North's biggest arms sales come from ballistic missiles, with Iran and other Middle Eastern states being customers, according to U.S. government officials.
ASKED TO INVESTIGATE
An air force official involved in the inspection of the craft, who declined to be named, said on Saturday the Thai authorities had been asked by the United States to investigate the plane and its cargo.
"We were approached by the United States, seeking our cooperation to examine the suspected plane. It came from North Korea and was heading for somewhere in South Asia, probably Pakistan," the official told Reuters.
Monthon Sutchukorn, a deputy spokesman for the Thai Air Force, told Reuters the plane was impounded at 3 p.m. on Friday.
"The air force took control of the plane in the evening of December 11," he added. "We found a huge amount of weapons ... all of which was transferred to be kept at a safe place belonging to the air force."
The authorities have declined to give details about the arms.
A military source said the haul included rocket-propelled grenades, missile and rocket launchers, missile tubes, surface-to-air missile launchers, spare parts and other heavy weapons. Experts will be taking a closer look on Tuesday.
The plane was an Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft, registered in Georgia.
A police source said the final destination could have been somewhere in South Asia or the Middle East, after a scheduled refuelling stop in Sri Lanka.
Military officials in Colombo said the consignment had not been destined for Sri Lanka.
"Why should Sri Lanka buy from North Korea when the same is available in China?" one official said.
The U.N. sanctions and the cut-off of handouts from South Korea have dealt a heavy blow to the North, which has an estimated GDP of $17 billion, and may force it back into nuclear disarmament talks in the hopes of winning aid, analysts said.
4/9 '10 loves x3 9:16 PM
