PDA

View Full Version : Dutch Passenger Hurls Into Action to Stop Alleged Terrorist on Plane


Barb-SAN
12-26-2009, 03:22 PM
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581178,00.html

A Dutch airline passenger told The Post how he leapt into action when an alleged Muslim terrorist tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner packed with 300 people just moments before landing.
Chaos erupted as alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, tried to set off a sophisticated explosive device strapped to his body.

"Suddenly, we hear a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off," said Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was traveling to the US to visit friends.

"When [it] went off, everybody panicked ... Then someone screamed, ‘Fire! Fire!’"
Schuringa, sitting in seat 20J, in the right-most section of the Airbushttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581178,00.html#) 330, looked to his left. "I saw smoke rising from a seat ... I didn’t hesitate. I just jumped," he said.
Schuringa dove over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallab’s seat. The suspect had a blanket on his lap. "It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs."
"I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs."
The unassuming hero ripped the flaming, molten object — which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle — off Abdul Mutallab’s left leg, near his crotch. He said he put out the fire with his bare hands.

Schuringa yelled for water, and members of the flight crew soon appeared with fire extinguishers. Then, he said, he hauled the suspect out of the seat.
"I took him in a choke to the first class and all the people were like, ‘What’s going on?!"
"I don’t feel like a hero," Schuringa told the Post as he recuperated with pals. "It was something that came completely natural ... It was something where I had to do something or it was too late."
:tiphat::tiphat: to Mr. Schuringa (ironic that he would be a film director. Maybe someone with those skills also has an ability to quickly see how the "plot" is developing...).

As might be expected, there's a lively discussion on PPRuNe about this latest possible terrorist incident http://www.pprune.org/showthread.php?p=5403457#post5403457

MathFox
12-27-2009, 05:20 PM
My summary of the incident is that the security measures prevented an effective explosion. There is a limit in the amount of material you can smuggle on your body and setting explosives off effectively is not that trivial either. The TSA reaction is "ineffective knee-jerking".

navel_gazer
12-27-2009, 07:11 PM
Hopefully this will lead the TSA and FAA and whoever else involved to review their policies and improve them? I suppose it's never good to get complacent and forget why the policies were started in the first place, even if they are far from perfect.

Great job on the part of that passenger.

Trying to look on the bright side as I'm flying ORD to LGA tomorrow evening!

Barb-SAN
12-28-2009, 09:35 PM
Great job on the part of that passenger.
Agreed. Not only did he leap over 4 passengers to get to the guy, try to put the fire out with his hands, look for explosives, etc., but he also had the presence of mind to take photos afterwards, and SELL his story to the media.:thumbsup: I hope that is some compensation for burned hands and the stress of going through the experience. (Hopefully he will be getting some additional compensation from Delta, and payment of his medical bills). I'll bet there will be a movie made...and he won't have to pay for rights to his story if he makes the movie! ;) He's an inspiration! http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/generalities/jasper_schuringa_continues_to_tell_his_story_14719 8.asp?c=rss
We're less than four days away from 2010 and one would think that in this day and age there would be more pictures -- video even -- of the chaos on board Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Friday, especially when you consider there were 278 people on board.

On Saturday, CNN paid a licensing fee for a grainy cell phone image (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/generalities/bidding_is_on_for_image_interview_with_northwest_a irlines_flight_253_hero_jasper_schuringa_147135.as p) snapped by hero passenger Jasper Schuringa (http://www.mediabistro.com/Jasper-Schuringa-profile.html). The network also got an 8-minute interview with the Dutch man.
A second image [above] turned up this morning on "Good Morning America," also from Schuringa. An ABC News spokesperson tells TVNewser the network paid a "reasonable licensing fee" for 48-hour usage of the image, expiring today. ABC also got two interviews with Schuringa, on GMA Sunday (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/generalities/jasper_schuringa_makes_the_tv_rounds_exclusive_or_ not_147143.asp) and again this morning (http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=9432455). Sources told TVNewser on Saturday the bidding was reaching $10,000.

Both images show Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as he was being brought into custody for trying to take down the Airbus A330 on Christmas Day as it approached the Detroit airport. Schuringa is being hailed a hero for leaping into action to subdue Abdulmutallab. He has burns on his hands to show for it. Schuringa, who is a video producer and director in Amsterdam, surely knows the value of his images and his story.