2009 World Events · Financial crisis, uprisings, and the cyber-kinetic threshold
Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt
A passenger attempted to detonate explosives hidden in clothing on a flight approaching Detroit.
Evidence-led reading
What is stated, why it matters, and what remains uncertain
What this is
A specific-event record selected from the protected World Events source ledger for cross-year research. It is not an exhaustive account of 2009.
Why it matters
It prompted enhanced aviation screening and attention to AQAP.
What is established here
The page faithfully exposes the submitted record and its source boundary. No claim-level evidence packet has yet upgraded the record beyond a research starting point.
What remains uncertain
Starting-point source from the submitted dataset; verify exact dates, attribution, legal posture, casualty figures, and current status before reuse.
Record narrative
Source-bounded summary
A passenger attempted to detonate explosives hidden in clothing on a flight approaching Detroit.
It prompted enhanced aviation screening and attention to AQAP.
Structured fields
Record at a glance
- Stable record ID
- 2009-008
- Date or period
- 2009-12-25
- Type
- Terrorist attack / aviation
- Focus
- Terrorism / aviation
- Impact scope
- Global
- Priority
- 4 of 5
- Location label
- Detroit / airspace, United States / Netherlands / Nigeria
- Coordinate precision
- City-airspace approximate coordinate
- Actors named by the source record
- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab; al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
- Verification state
- source-start-point; sensitive details require independent verification
Geographic context
A coordinate locator, not a surveyed event footprint
The submitted record supplies 42.3314, -83.0458 with the precision label “City-airspace approximate coordinate.” Multi-location events, disputed borders, campaigns, and broad regions cannot be reduced to one point.
Review location and coordinate boundariesSource and verification boundary
This remains a starting-point record
Starting-point source from the submitted dataset; verify exact dates, attribution, legal posture, casualty figures, and current status before reuse.
Citation and correction
Use the stable record ID and challenge individual propositions
A correction may concern the date, place, actors, attribution, legal status, figures, coordinate precision, source characterization, or why-pivotal summary without invalidating every other field.
2IA — International Intelligence Archive. “Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt.” World Events record 2009-008. Reviewed July 27, 2026. https://2ix.org/world-events/2009/2009-008/