When the plane was about 10 minutes from landing in Detroit, the lawyer saw commotion and fire — and recognized the Mutallab as the man who was helped by the sharp-dressed man.

SOURCE: Flight 253 passenger: Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport (MLive.com exclusive)

Transcript on Department of Homeland Security on Janet Napolitano’s response …

CNN CANDY CROWLEY: Has there been any evidence of the Al Qaeda ties that this suspect has been claiming?

DHS JANET NAPOLITANO: Uh, right now that is part of the criminal justice investigation that is ongoing, and uh, I think it would be inappropriate to speculate as to whether or not he had such ties. What we’re focused on was making sure that the air environment remains safe, people are confident when they travel, and one think I’d to point out is … is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here … the passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. Uh, we instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas both here in the United States and in Europe … uh … where this flight originated, so … ah … th … the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, directly and effectively went very smoothly.

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CNN CANDY CROWLEY: If he was not improperly screened or properly screened, and yet you want Americans to feel safe on the planes and so … if he was properly screened any got on anyway with that, it doesn’t feel that safe.

DHS JANET NAPOLITANO: Well uh you know it should, this was one individual of literally thousands that fly on thousands of flights every year, and uh he was stopped before any damage could be done and now the forensics are analyzing, well, what could have been done with, with whatever substance he had and whatever amount, those are all undetermined issues right now … uh … and then we will go back and see about … about that technology … about that screening, just as we will go back at the president’s request and look at how we put people on different types of watch lists. Those are things that had been in place … uh … for many years. They have been the procedures that we have utilized … uh … and again once this incident occurred, what I really think deserves attention is everybody responded quickly effectively … witihout, without, you know, panicking and shutting down the airline systems — air travel. Uh, what we did is dealt with the incident,put out additional security measures both at airports here and abroad and made sure that the flights that were in the air were indeed safe.

Wikipedia: Candy Crowley | Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano | Northwest Airlines Flight 253 | No Fly List