20091226

DETROIT (Reuters) - A Nigerian man linked to al Qaeda tried to set off an explosive device aboard a U.S. passenger plane as it approached Detroit on Friday, but was overpowered by passengers and crew and the aircraft landed safely, officials said.

The suspect suffered extensive third-degree burns and was taken into custody. The passengers, two of whom suffered minor injuries, disembarked safely from the Delta Air Lines plane, which had departed from Amsterdam.

"We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism," a White House official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

President Barack Obama is on vacation in Hawaii and was monitoring the situation after conferring with Homeland Security and National Security Council officials.

Representative Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said the explosive device was "fairly sophisticated," and identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a 23-year-old Nigerian.

"When it did go off, he himself was seriously injured. He has third-degree burns," King told Fox News. ... (The device) "appears to be different from what we've encountered before."

Mudallad tried to ignite the device or mixture as the aircraft was approaching Detroit.

King told CNN that Mudallad "did appear in a database as far as having a terrorist connection. ... My understanding is ... that he does have al Qaeda connections, certainly extremist terrorist connections, and his name popped up pretty quickly" in a search of intelligence data bases.