US charges student with airplane bomb plot

The US Justice Department tonight charged the alleged Christmas Day terrorist with attempting to destroy a plane.

The 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly had a device containing a high explosive attached to his body, the Justice Department said.

The Justice Department alleged that as the flight neared Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Friday, Abdulmutallab set off the device, but it sparked a fire instead of an explosion.

According to an affidavit filed in the federal court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device showed that it contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.

That was one of the explosives carried by Richard Reid, the British “shoe bomber” who was convicted of trying to blow up a plane as it flew to the United States a few months after the September 11 2001 attacks.

The government alleges Abdulmutallab told passengers his stomach was upset, then pulled a blanket over himself.

Passengers then heard popping noises.