On this day in 2009, a 23-year-old man from an influential Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate a plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Nigeria through Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan.
Now referred to as the "Underwear Bomber", or the “Christmas Day Bomber”, he confessed to and was convicted for the crime.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed to have organised the attack with Abdulmutallab; they said they supplied him with the bomb and trained him.
Connections to al-Qaeda and Anwar al-Awlaki have been found, although the latter denied ordering the man to do the bombing.
Abdulmutallab was convicted in a U.S. federal court of eight federal criminal counts, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder of 289 people.
On February 16, 2012, he was sentenced to 4 life terms plus 50 years without pardon.
He is incarcerated at ADX Florence, the supermax federal prison in Colorado, the United States of America.
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