Passenger says accused terrorist got help boarding
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Taylor -- An attorney who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day says he saw another man come to the assistance of accused bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab when he tried to board the airplane in Amsterdam without a passport.
Kurt Haskell, a Taylor attorney, told FBI agents what he saw near the boarding gate at Amsterdam when he was questioned at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following Abdulmutallab's alleged attempt to blow up the aircraft, said Haskell's wife Lori, who is also an attorney and was traveling with her husband.
"The two of us were sitting on the floor playing cards," Lori Haskell told The Detroit News. "My husband noticed two men walk up to the ticket counter lady. The only reason he noticed them is that he thought they were really a mismatched pair."The man they later learned was Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, wore older, scraggly clothing, but the man who was assisting him, who appeared to be of Indian descent, was dressed in what looked like an expensive suit and shoes, she said.
The well-dressed man told the ticket agent: "We need to get this man on the plane," Haskell recounted. "He doesn't have a passport."
The ticket agent told the man nobody was allowed to board without a passport, to which the well-dressed man replied: "We do this all the time; he's from Sudan," Haskell said, adding she and her husband believe the man was trying to pass Abdulmutallab off as a Sudanese refugee.
The two were then directed down a corridor to talk to a manager, she said.
"We never saw him again until he tried to blow up our plane," Haskell said of Abdulmutallab.
Abdulmutallab, 23, is charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device aboard an aircraft. He allegedly had chemical explosives concealed under his clothing. His attempt to detonate them as the plane approached Detroit created a small fire, but he was restrained by passengers and flight crew, who put out the fire, federal authorities say.
Lori Haskell said that as the plane approached Detroit, she heard a popping sound she first thought was ice on the landing gear. Then a flight attendant walked by and said, almost to herself: "Does anyone hear that buzzing sound? I think I smell smoke."
Commotion then followed as smoke began to fill the cabin, flames shot up the wall of the plane, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab and, along with cabin crew, put out the fire, Haskell said.
"I think that it was all completely planned," Haskell said. "I totally don't think it was one guy."
The couple was returning from a safari in Uganda. Haskell, who sent copies of her boarding passes to show that she and her husband were aboard the flight, said neither she nor her husband saw the well-dressed man again after her husband saw him near the boarding gate.
Both the FBI and federal prosecutors declined to comment Monday on Haskell's account.
pegan@detnews.com (313) 222-2069
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