Could Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab really have blown up the Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day? Probably not, but security checks at airports all over the world appear to fall short of the mark. And X-ray security scans, which could help, are seen as an invasion of privacy, says the Dutch quality daily NRC Handelsblad today.

What happened?

Twenty minutes before landing in Detroit, the 23-year-old Nigerian said he had stomach pain and covered himself in a blanket. Passengers then heard a bang, like a firework going off or a balloon bursting, and saw him enveloped in flames.

Dutch passenger Jasper Schuringa immediately leaped on the man, using his hands to try and put out the fire between the bomber’s legs. The flames were brought under control using bottles of water and a fire extinguisher.

Mr Schuringa was able to drag the slightly-built Nigerian to business class where he searched him for more explosives or weapons and, together with the crew, put him in handcuffs. The Dutch passenger has achieved hero status for his quick-witted response to the drama.

Al-Qaeda?

The would-be bomber has told the United States authorities that he was operating under instructions from the al-Qaeda network based in Yemen. US news station ABC says he was trained north of the Yemeni capital Sana’a by a Saudi bomb expert, from whom he acquired his explosives. US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says he acted alone and was not part of a wider conspiracy.

However, Dutch military police are said to be investigating reports that the bomber was seen at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Friday morning with a tall well-dressed man aged about 50. The man is reported to have been speaking for Abdulmutallab, who had flown in from Lagos in Nigeria, and to have tried to get him on the flight to Detroit without a passport. Security camera footage is being investigated.

The explosives

Abdulmutallab managed to smuggle 80 grams of the high explosive, pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), hidden in his underclothes, probably in a condom. The ‘ shoebomber’, Richard Reid, only had 30 grams of PETN for his transatlantic bombing attempt of December 2001.

It appears that this latest attempt had little chance of success. An expert tells NRC: “ Most explosives have to be packed under pressure for an explosion to take place. That was not so in this case. Eighty grams of PETN burns up in a second.”

Even if the bomber had not been overpowered, the fire would probably not have got much worse. However, if the explosives had been confined in a box and placed against the side of the plane, the results could have been disastrous.

Security?

The bomber checked in for his KLM-Air France flight from Nigeria to Amsterdam just before midnight on Christmas Eve. He went through two security gates and had his hand bagged scanned twice. He didn’t pass through passport control when he arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport because he was in transit. He did, however, go through a security gate and his hand baggage was scanned once again. The Dutch authorities say no irregularities were discovered at Schiphol but admit that the standard security checks cannot prevent passengers from taking aboard “potentially dangerous objects”.

A security scanner would have detected the small package of explosives Abdulmetallab had hidden in his underclothes. Since 2007, 17 such scanners have been installed at Schiphol, but they are not yet operational. They use low-energy X-rays to produce an image of the nude body and many people say they are an invasion of privacy. Under European Union rules, they can only be used if passengers agree to be scanned.

photo: Abdulmutallab’s arrest (CNN)