ABSTRACT
After successfully evading detection at all formal airport and airline security checks, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded Northwest Flight 253 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with a concealed bomb containing high explosive compounds that was strapped to his body. As the airline began its descent into Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Abdulmutallab made the attempt to detonate the bomb. Dutch passenger, Jasper Schuringa, seated to the right of Abdulmutallab recalled: “Suddenly we heard a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off. I saw smoke rising from a seat… I didn’t hesitate. I just jumped.” It was not the officially appointed and trained flight crew that were alerted into action by this incident, but Schuringa who jumped over passengers to subdue Abdulmutallab after seeing smoke and what he described as “flames coming from beneath his legs”. Having been alert and in such close proximity to the bomber Schuringa said he tore a “flaming molten object which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle off Abdulmutallab's left leg”. Schuringa restrained him by taking him in a choke hold and then hauled him out of the seat with the help of other passengers and flight crew on board. Reflecting on the incident later on, Schuringa explained: “I don’t feel like a hero. It was something that came completely natural…it was something where I had to do something or it was too late.” 1
