Flight’s passengers describe chaos, fire

DETROIT — Passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 knew something was very wrong when they saw flight attendants running for fire extinguishers.

Then they smelled the smoke.

“People were just running, and they were scared,” passenger Veena Saigal said. “They were running towards the center of the plane, running to get away from the flames.” In a minute or so - “It seemed like a long time,” she said - the fire was out.

Saigal was sitting in row 13, six rows in front of a Nigerian man authorities say ignited an incendiary device as the plane descended for a landing. She and other passengers described a chaotic scene as people on the Christmas Day flight lunged to subdue the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, as flames and smoke poured from beneath his seat.

Jasper Schuringa, an Amsterdam resident sitting on the right side of the plane, said he quickly leaped over several seats and on top of Abdulmutallab to detain him and extinguish the flames.

In an interview on CNN, Schuringa displayed bandages on his right hand as he described the scene inside the plane: screaming passengers, pillows on fire and a quick thinking crew.

“When I saw the suspect, that he was getting on fire, I freaked, of course, and without any hesitation I just jumped over all the seats,” Schuringa said. “And I jumped to the suspect. I was thinking like, he’s trying to blow up the plane. I was trying to search his body for any explosives. I took some kind of object that was already melting and smoking out of him.”

Schuringa said Abdulmutallab was calm and almost trance like, saying nothing as passengers and crew members led him to the first-class section, searched and detained him until the plane landed safely.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued a statement Saturday morning praising the quick reactions of those on the plane, which recalled the heroism of passengers who subdued shoe bomber Richard Reid in December 2001 and the actions of people on United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I am grateful to the passengers and crew aboard Northwest Flight 253 who reacted quickly and heroically to an incident that could have had tragic results,” Napolitano wrote.

The long trans-Atlantic flight had been uneventful, passengers said, with Abdulmutallab drawing no attention to himself. That changed about noon as pilots began descending toward a landing.

Sources said Abdulmutallab appears to have used a syringe to mix a chemical with some powder on his leg to start a fire. Schuringa said he screamed for water as he took a burning, melting object that Abdulmutallab had hidden in his pants.

He said something leaking from his pants apparently ignited two pillows on the floor.

Passengers raced away from the flames, Saigal said, clogging the aisles, while other passengers and the flight attendants called for water or hurried to grab the fire extinguishers.

Several people on board said they heard a “pop” and saw smoke. Saigal said she saw the glow of flames. Others interviewed on cable news networks said the smell of smoke quickly filled the large cabin.

Charles Keepman was sitting farther back in the plane when he heard the popping sound and saw the flight attendants running down the aisles.

“We heard a pop, then the smell and the reality kicked in for all of us. The reality was the fear in the flight attendants’ eyes,” said Keepman, a businessman returning to Wisconsin from Ethiopia, where he and his wife had adopted two children. “We’re just thankful to the Lord that we were spared.”

As they descended toward landing, passengers said the concern about a potential fire quickly shifted to the issue of security as passengers near the suspect tried to subdue him.

Saigal said a “strong guy” wrapped an arm around the suspect’s neck and began pushing him up the aisle toward an empty seat at the front of the plane, which pilots were preparing to land at Detroit’s principal airport.

“He was holding him from the back, with a strong grip,” said Saigal, who was completing a trip home to Ann Arbor from India. “He’s kind of a hero, I think. When he went back to his seat, we all clapped.”