Schuringa is covered by mainstream media, though still not the WSJ

While Jasper Schuringa was a non-person in the Wall Street Journal’s account of passenger “instant heroism” on the Northwest flight, as I discussed here, and was also absent from the print edition of today’s New York Post, which I read an hour ago, he’s been added to the on-line edition of the same Post article, and he is also mentioned in the New York Daily News, CNN, CBS, the New York Times, and other mainstream outlets.

The print edition of the Post says,

A passenger sitting across from the terrorist sprang into action, climbing over other passengers to restrain the terrorist, and suffering burns in the process, said Smith.

In the online edition that has been changed to:

A man sitting across from Mutallab, Jasper Schuringa, sprang into action, climbing over other passengers to restrain the terrorist, and suffering burns in the process, said Smith.

The story continues:

Syed Jafry, who was three rows behind the suspect, said another “young man behind me jumped on him.

The ordeal ended when “a sturdy guy put a lock on [Mutallab’s] head,” and dragged him to the front of the plane, Veena Saigl, told the Detroit Free Press. Mudallad’s “pants were down,” she said.

So the Post still has an unnamed person putting a lock on Mutallab’s head and dragging him into First Class.

The above link goes to a Post story in which Shuringa tells what he did in more detail than was related in the Dutch news source. He didn’t just tackle Mutallab, he ripped the flaming bomb off his body:

Terror hero: I didn’t hesitate
By TOM LIDDY
Last Updated: 6:13 PM, December 26, 2009
Posted: 8:35 AM, December 26, 2009

A Dutch airline passenger told The Post how he leapt into action when an alleged Muslim terrorist tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner packed with 300 people just moments before landing.

Chaos erupted as alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, tried to set off a sophisticated explosive device strapped to his body.

“Suddenly, we hear a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off,” said Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was traveling to the US to visit friends.

“When [it] went off, everybody panicked … Then someone screamed, ‘Fire! Fire!’”

Schuringa, sitting in seat 20J, in the right-most section of the Airbus 330, looked to his left. “I saw smoke rising from a seat … I didn’t hesitate. I just jumped,” he said.

Schuringa dove over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallab’s seat. The suspect had a blanket on his lap. “It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs.”

“I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs.”

The unassuming hero ripped the flaming, molten object—which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle—off Abdul Mutallab’s left leg, near his crotch. He said he put out the fire with his bare hands.

Schuringa yelled for water, and members of the flight crew soon appeared with fire extinguishers. Then, he said, he hauled the suspect out of the seat.

“I took him in a choke to the first class and all the people were like, ‘What’s going on?!”

“I don’t feel like a hero,” Schuringa told the Post as he recuperated with pals. “It was something that came completely natural … It was something where I had to do something or it was too late.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 26, 2009 07:01 PM | Send