Christmas Aboard Flight 253 [Reader Post]

Everything had worked perfectly. The years of expectation and the months of training and preparation were about to be gloriously fulfilled. Having defeated the infidels’ security measures and boarded the transatlantic flight 253 out of Amsterdam, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a 23 year old Nigerian, acting on behalf of Al’Qaeda and Allah, was about to strike a blow into the very heart of the enemy, deep within the belly of the beast as it were, over the midwestern city of Detroit on one of the nations most cherished holy days: Christmas.

The plot was brilliantly conceived and masterfully executed. The 80 grams of the high explosive, PETN, stitched into his underwear, had escaped detection at the airport, despite his difficulties boarding the flight without a passport. All that would be required to set off the explosive was the injection of the liquid catalyst he had also smuggled on board the flight. Even the location of his seat had been well thought out, directly above one of the fuel tanks. The horrendous blast from the PETN would tear a hole through the floor of the jet and detonate the highly combustible jet fuel vapor in the top of the tank, nestled just a few feet below Umar’s seat, thus guaranteeing the destruction of the aircraft and the deaths of all 289 souls on board the Delta-Northwest flight 253 flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009. The grief and horror inflicted upon the friends and relatives of the passengers and crew in particular, and on the entire United States as a whole, would be unimaginable, while at the same time the bombing would serve as a rallying cry for the soldiers of Allah and would be martyrs all over the world, demonstrating in graphic, bloody detail the vulnerability of both the United States and Christianity at the same time.

Indeed, everything had worked perfectly, right up until the time of the blast itself. Once the airliner began its descent, Umar injected the catalyst into the PETN, but the injection did not go deep enough, and the volume of PETN failed to explode, although it did ignite and catch on fire. Flames shot up the wall of the cabin onto the ceiling; some of the passengers were yelling and screaming, nevertheless the flight crew put the fire out; and one of the passengers, a dutch filmmaker, subdued Umar. He was restrained throughout the remainder of the flight, which amounted to only a few minutes. The flight landed safely, and a burned and bruised Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was taken into custody. No one was seriously injured except the perpetrator himself, and he should be eternally grateful the Lord spared his life as well as everyone else on board that flight. So this year, despite the remonstrations and hand wringing at how Umar had managed to elude detection, 289 people, including the would be bomber himself, had ample reason to celebrate Christmas this year. As was demonstrated so poetically on the day we celebrate his birth, Jesus really does save!