WASHINGTON – A video has been released of the explosion a convicted terrorist hoped would take down an international flight bound for Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.
The FBI recreated the bomb Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the ‘Underwear Bomber,’ planned to use to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Counter-terrorism officials say the video (below) is what the explosion would have looked like if the plan worked.
As the video played in court, Abdulmutallab said loudly twice, “Allahu akbar,” meaning ‘God is great.’
Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a bomb on the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight, but the device failed and badly burned him. He confessed after he was hauled off the plane.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmonds sentenced him Thursday to life in prison.
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