While Europeans pay hollow homage to football frauds like Thierry Henry, Americans laud sports stars like serial adulterer Tiger Woods as icons, and toss the word “hero” around so often it has lost its currency, it should be reserved for people like Jasper Schuringa, a video director from the Netherlands, whose fearlessness saved the lives of 278 people aboard Northwest Airline Flight 253 as it landed in Detroit on Christmas morning. Talk about miracles.
When a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, used a nitroglycerin-like liquid in a syringe to try to set off an explosive hidden in his underwear while he was covered by a blanket as he sat by the fuel tanks of the jetliner at the window, Schuringa defined bravery by leaping over seats, grappled with him, and “took some object that was melting and smoking” from the Nigerian’s body. “I freaked of course ... because I thought he’s trying to blow up the plane,” Schuringa told CNN. While most passengers sat terrified, despite the smoke and popping sounds coming from Abdulmuttallab, Schuringa used his hand to put out the fire, sustaining burns. The fire spread under the seat and he said, “I was screaming for water, water,” as cabin attendants rushed with fire extinguishers. Schuringa wasn’t done yet. He and another attendant dragged Abdulmutallab into the first class compartment where “We stripped him to see if he had any more explosives,” then they handcuffed the man, whose father said had been radicalized by terrorists while living in London.
It was  reminiscent of the heroics of passengers on board the ill-fated United Airlines Flight 93 hijacked on September 11, 2001. Terrorists were believed heading toward Washington, D.C. to crash into the White House or US Capitol, but never made it because a few stormed the cockpit, trying to retake control. The plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania and the 40 passengers and crew died, along with the four terrorists who don’t count as human beings, but many more lives were saved.
The attempt to bring down the Northwest flight came as some Europeans, including a few in the European Parliament, are trying to relax continued scrutiny of liquids that the zealous privacy lovers say inconveniences passengers. EU lawmakers also halted plans to install body scanners at airports, including at Schiphol in Amsterdam from where Abdulmutallab left, because they said it invaded personal privacy as it allows security staff to look through people’s clothes, seeming them naked, so perhaps they’d rather look at human remains after an aircraft explosion. Abdulmutallab was said to be carrying PETN, an explosive he didn’t buy from the airport refreshment stand, but if some in the EU had their way, anyone carrying it could waltz onto an airplane and use it to blow up the aircraft, which is a real inconvenience. The liquid ban was imposed after officials in the United Kingdom detected a plot in 2006 by terrorists to use liquid bombs to blow up at least seven aircraft flying from Europe to the United States, but since none of the passengers were Members of the European Parliament, they didn’t care. In November 2009, EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said he “resolved to get rid of these awkward and very uncomfortable” checks on passengers when new technology to screen explosives becomes available. If he’d been on board Flight 253 he may have changed his mind, but then people like him can always count on those like Schuringa to take charge. Schuringa got a ovation from other passengers when he returned to his seat, a sound that Henry, Woods and Tajani will never hear because that kind of applause is reserved for real heroes.
 Andy@NEurope.eu