Northwest Airlines Flight 253

Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was an international passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in the United States. The flight was the target of a failed al-Qaeda bombing attempt on Christmas Day, December 25, 2009, in which a passenger tried to set off chemical explosives sewn to his underwear. There were 290 people on board the aircraft—an Airbus A330-323E operated by Northwest Airlines, which had merged with Delta Air Lines the year before. Had the attempt succeeded, it would have surpassed American Airlines Flight 191 as the deadliest aviation occurrence on U.S. soil and tied Iran Air Flight 655 as the eighth-deadliest of all time. The incident was also the second in 2009 involving an Airbus A330, after the crash of Air France Flight 447 on June 1. This was also the final accident/incident involving Northwest Airlines as it closed down a month later when it merged with Delta Air Lines.

The convicted bomber in the "Christmas Day bombing attempt" was 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who had concealed plastic explosives in his underwear but failed to detonate them properly. A Dutch passenger, Jasper Schuringa, tackled and restrained him and put out the fire with the aid of others. Abdulmutallab was handcuffed while the pilot safely landed the plane. In all, three people were injured: Abdulmutallab, Schuringa, and one other passenger. Upon landing in Detroit, Abdulmutallab was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment of his burns. On December 28, 2009, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing. On January 6, 2010, a federal grand jury indicted Abdulmutallab on six criminal charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder.

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