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Flyers react to Detroit terror attack attempt; Two adopted Ethiopian children were on Northwest Flight 253
AP MILWAUKEE:-Richelle Keepman and her parents were flying home from Ethiopia where her parents just adopted two children when they heard a pop and saw two terrified flight attendants run for fire extinguishers.
The 24-year-old, her parents, Charles and Patricia Keepman, and her new 6-year-old sister and 8-year-old brother were sitting near the back of the plane. They were about 20 rows behind the 23-year-old man who is accused of trying to detonate an explosive device as the Northwest flight was preparing to land in Detroit.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria was charged Saturday in the Christmas Day attempt that only sparked a fire on the flight from Amsterdam. The family was flying from Addis Abeba.
Richelle Keepman, 24, who lives with her parents about 35 miles west of Milwaukee in Oconomowoc, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that she knew something was wrong by the look on the flight attendants' faces.
"They were so scared. That's kind of when the whole back end of the plane understood that something was terribly wrong," she said. "That's when the panicking really started and then all of a sudden you could smell the smoke coming from the front of the plane and you could hear the screams."
She sang "Jesus Loves Me" to distract the children, who knew little English and had never flown before.
"We did everything in our power to make them think, 'This happens. It's OK. We'd be fine,'" she said. "By the grace of God they didn't really catch on and still now have no idea."
Source:- AP