Possible Accomplice? Suspect Reportedly Boarded Flight 253 Without Passport

There appears to be a new twist amidst all the hand-wringing and second-guessing about how airport securities systems worked, or failed miserably. Reuters is now reporting a Dutch military police investigation surrounding a possible accomplice who helped get the passenger on board Flight 253. They cite a US couple, Kurt and Lori Haskell, who claim that a well-dressed man appeared to escort suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and attempted to get him aboard Northwest flight 253 without a passport.

Reuters Africa reports:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch military police are investigating the possibility that an accomplice may have helped the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, a spokesman said on Monday.

A U.S. couple on the flight, Kurt and Lori Haskell, told Reuters and other news agencies that they saw a tall, well-dressed man aged about 50 with the suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Friday morning at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

The Haskells have claimed the man spoke for Abdulmutallab and attempted to get him aboard Northwest flight 253 without a passport.

“At this moment we have no information on whether there was another guy,” the military police spokesman said. “We are checking all clues and information we get.”

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