DETROIT — They heard a pop that sounded like fireworks.
They saw a glow of flame followed by a rush of smoke. And that was enough for passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to pounce.
From several seats away, Dutch tourist Jasper Schuringa said, he jumped to extinguish a fire ignited by a quiet man who just moments before allegedly told passengers his stomach was upset and pulled a blanket over himself.
Schuringa said his first thought wasn’t to signal a flight attendant or wait for an air marshal to break cover, but rather, “He’s trying to blow up the plane.”
“I basically reacted directly,” Schuringa said Saturday in an interview with CNN. “I didn’t think. I just jumped. I just went over there and tried to save the plane.”
Aviation-safety experts once would have called Schuringa’s actions a mistake and cautioned passengers against fighting back during hijackings and other crises in the air. That was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the actions of passengers on United Flight 93, who learned while aloft about the hijacked jets that slammed that day into New York City’s World Trade Center.
They staged a cabin revolt against the terrorists who had taken control of their flight and died when their plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa. But they succeeded in keeping the jet from destroying another building that day, and their story became legend.
“I don’t think people are going to sit back and let somebody kill them in the process of fulfilling their extremist agenda or whatever it happens to be,” said Dave Heffernan, who helps oversee self-defense training for commercial flight crews at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla. “People have talked about it. They’ve thought about it. They have a plan of action.”
On Saturday, a day after the failed attack on Northwest Flight 253, federal prosecutors charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a native of Nigeria, with trying to destroy the airliner with a device containing a high explosive attached to his body.
Schuringa, a resident of Amsterdam, told CNN that he didn’t think about his own safety when he extinguished the fire with his hands. He and other passengers said that several people on board, including members of the flight crew, joined him in taking Abdulmutallab to first class to strip off his clothes and search for more explosives.
“In a matter of minutes, everything was settled down. . . . The passengers were proactive. We just did it. There was nothing to talk about,” said Syed Jafry, 57, of Holland, Mich.
Another passenger, Richelle Keepman, 24, of Oconomowoc, Wis., said passengers were interviewed later by authorities and released from the airport. When Schuringa came through the area, “we were all clapping,” she said.
The day after the attack, authorities at airports worldwide tightened security. Passengers didn’t seem to mind, and many said they knew the story of United 93 and would respond aggressively if the new security measures failed.
“I know how to tackle,” said Stephen Evans, 39, a former rugby player traveling from Chicago to Dulles International Airport near Washington. “Your odds are better to get the guy and risk an explosion on the plane rather than fly into Washington’s Monument or what have you.”
Refusing to sit back
Other instances in which passengers have reacted to a potentially dangerous situation in-flight:
• In June, two off-duty officers handcuffed a traveler who took off his clothes and kicked and punched a flight attendant on a US Airways flight to Los Angeles from Charlotte, N.C.
• In April 2008, passengers duct-taped a drunken man to his seat after he attacked a United Airlines flight attendant on a trip to Los Angeles from Hong Kong.
