FAA: Pilots didn’t immediately know passenger had tried to ignite bomb on Christmas Day flight

FAA: Scope of plane attack not immediately known

DETROIT — The pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 didn’t immediately know that a passenger had tried to ignite a bomb on the Christmas Day trip from Amsterdam to Detroit, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The cockpit said it had a problem when the flight landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told a House subcommittee.

“There was (a) communications gap between the cabin and the flight deck crew,” he said Thursday. “The flight deck crew reported they had someone who had attempted to set firecrackers off, so it didn’t elevate to anyone — whether it was the cockpit or air traffic control — to anything of great seriousness at that point.”

A Nigerian man, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is charged with attempting to blow up the plane that had nearly 300 passengers and crew aboard. Other passengers saw fire about 20 minutes before landing and said they pounced on the man to put out the flames. He was hauled to first class and stripped of his clothes.

Some aviation experts have criticized the decision to take the plane to the gate, where passengers were allowed to depart and baggage was unloaded — instead of stopping elsewhere at the airport.

“We isolated the airplane as soon as it was known to us,” Babbitt said, referring to the attempted bombing.

Delta Air Lines Inc. has said it relied on law enforcement to give directions that day. The Northwest name was recently phased out as part of Delta’s integration of the two carriers.

“I thank God there wasn’t a loss of life in that situation. … This is something we can learn from,” Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Mich., told Babbitt.

Abdulmutallab has been cooperating with the FBI, intelligence officials say. He is being held in a federal prison outside Detroit. This week he waived his right to go to trial within 70 days of first appearing in court. The next hearing is April 13 in federal court in Detroit.