Tests show Christmas Day terror plot plane would have landed safely despite explosion

The controlled test explosion was carried out for the BBC Two documentary "How safe are our Skies? Detroit Flight 253".

Dr John Wyatt, an international terrorism and explosives expert, who is an adviser to the UN, simulated the conditions on board the Detroit flight on a decommissioned Boeing 747 at an aircraft graveyard in Gloucestershire.

The experiment used the same amount of the explosive pentaerythritol (or PETN) Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of smuggling on board. The explosive was located in the place where he was sitting on the plane. 

Experts said the accused Nigerian terrorist and the passenger next to him would have died, while other passengers would have suffered ruptured ear drums, but Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit would have successfully landed.

Captain J Joseph, an air accident investigator, and Dr Wyatt both drew the same conclusion that the quantity of explosive used was not enough to break the skin of a passenger plane through.

Dr Wyatt told the BBC: ‘If it was a more rigid material then we might have seen a crack or breakthrough but this is actually quite a flexible material.

Captain Joseph said: ‘We noticed the aircraft had lost some rivets but no flight controls were compromised and certainly no fuel tanks were breached.

‘I’m very confident that the flight crew could have taken this aeroplane without any incident at all and get it on the ground safely.’


Read more

Boeing 747 survives simulated 'Flight 253' bomb blast BBC News 
Report: Underpants bomb wouldn't have downed 747 Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)
Boeing 747 survives simulated 'Flight 253' bomb blast Radio 1
Boeing 747 survives simulation bomb blast BBC News