US/Nigeria/EU - airline bomber

Airport security stepped up as bomber charged

Article published on the 2009-12-27 Latest update 2009-12-27 14:45 TU

Undated photograph of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
(Photo: Reuters/saharareporters.com/Handout)

Airports and airlines around the world have tightened security after Saturday's almost successful attempt to blow up a US airliner as it headed to Detroit. Delays of between one and a half and two and a half hours are reported for flights arriving from and going to the US at Paris's Roissy/Charles de Gaulle airport.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was arraigned Saturday at the US hospital where he was being treated for burns sustained while trying to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with 290 people on board.

Judge Paul Borman read the charges against him during a 20-minute hearing. Abdulmutallab was handcuffed to a wheelchair and wore bandages on both wrists and parts of his hands.

He has declared that he has links with Al-Qaeda and his father warned the US embassy in Nigeria of his radical opinions last month, according to American officials.

A preliminary FBI analysis found a high explosive known as Petnaerythritol, or PETN, was found in the syringe which he had strapped to his leg. He was prevented from setting it off by Dutch video producer and director Jasper Schuringa, who jumped over the passenger next to him and tackled the would-be bomber.

The attempted bombing takes place eight years after "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jet during Christmas week 2001.

Security has been tightened at airports around the world:

• France - Passengers at Roissy/Charles de Gaulle airport report that all hand baggage, apart from women's handbags, has to be checked into the hold; officials say that body searches and other measures already in place are being more rigorously applied, leading to delays of up to two and half hours for flights to and from the US;
• The Netherlands - Amsterdam-Shicphol is investigating how Abdulmutallab was able to smuggle explosives on board;
• London - British Airways says that Christmas gifts in hand luggage must be unwrapped before boarding and only one item will be allowed as hand luggage;
• Singapore - Passengers on board Singapore Airlines planes must be seated one hour before landing and should have no baggage near them;
• Pakistan and Afghanistan - officials say that security was already so stringent that it did not need to be tightened.