By Heather Grossmann and Michael Ventura
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — Two major security screw-ups nearly allowed the admitted Times Square bomber to escape from New York on a Monday night flight to Dubai, several news outlets reported.
First, federal agents who had been tailing Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old American citizen born in Pakistan who has since admitted to authorities he planted a car bomb in the heart of Manhattan, lost him as he made a break for JFK Airport, the New York Times said.
He was off the grid until a passenger manifest for the Emirates Air flight to Dubai was sent to US Customs and Border Patrol officials, the Times said.
Second, Shahzad had been added to the federal no-fly list on Monday morning, but by the time authorities were alerted to his flight plans, Shahzad was already on the plane.
It pulled away for the gate headed for the runway when Customs agents called it back and arrested Shahzad.
Emirates Air failed update their no-fly list when they received a crucial e-mail notifying all airlines to add Shahzad’s name, the Times reported. The mistake meant that Emirates did not flag Shahzad when he reserved the flight to Dubai and paid for it in cash early Monday evening.
While investigators congratulated themselves throughout Tuesday for catching Shahzad, the nagging question of how he got on the plane in the first place remained.
“Clearly the guy was on the plane and shouldn’t have been," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. "We got very lucky.”
Despite the lapses, US Attorney General Eric Holder said he was "never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him."
In addition to the helpful clues Shahzad apparently left behind — he left his house keys in the car bomb's ignition, for example — the hunt for Shahzad was massive.
Police and FBI agents interviewed more than 300 hotel guests and workers at the Mariott Marquis to glean clues, the Times reported. They asked theater-goers from two shows whether they had seen anyone suspicious. Agents also fanned out to Pennsylvania to chase leads, and talked to makers of the bomb's components, the paper said.
After the NYPD bomb squad defused the Nissan Pathfinder packed with explosives that was left in Times Square, investigators looked it over at a Queens forensics lab.
The break in the case came when a NYPD detective found a hidden vehicle identification number in the SUV's undercarriage. From there, they found the owner who sold the car to Shahzad. Although she couldn't remember his name, she had his cell phone number.
The National Security Agency monitored Shahzad's calls. He called several numbers overseas.
"New York can breathe a little easier today," NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday. "That's due in large measure to the investigative muscle and alacrity of NYPD detectives and FBI agents."
