HOLLAND, Mich. — As the jet began its slow descent to Detroit Metropolitan Airport late Friday morning, Syed Jafry was eager for the end of the eight-hour flight and the sight of his wife and children, who were waiting to greet him at the airport.
Then he heard a commotion.
“All of a sudden, we heard a pop,” said Jafry, 57, from Holland, Mich.
Jafry turned around to look over his left shoulder and saw, three rows back, the glow of flame, smoke and a jumble of passengers and crew.
At first, Jafry thought a passenger in the window seat had lit something as a joke. But as the pandemonium grew, so did his panic.
Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands, said that one passenger, sitting opposite the suspect, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man.
“A young man behind me jumped on him,” Jafry said. “Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic. . . . It was scary.”
At least a dozen passengers got out of their seats. There were shouts for water and blankets.
Someone or something was on fire. “The guy himself, I think,” Jafry said.
Eventually the flame was extinguished, and the suspect was taken to the front of the plane.
Once off the plane, passengers remained at the airport for nearly four hours to be questioned by the FBI.
Rich Griffith, a passenger from Pontiac, didn’t mind being detained on the plane for several hours. “We can’t have what’s going on everywhere else happening here,” he said.
Only after Jafry left the airport did he realize what might have happened.
“We’re lucky to be alive today,” Jafry said from his home. “It’s Christmas Day. What a good present this is.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
