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Serge Devant - FLIGHT 861
Snake on a plane was calm, DJ recalls
BY NOAH FOWLE and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Tuesday, June 5th 2007, 4:00 AM
A Brooklyn man who was aboard the same Venezuela-bound flight as alleged terrorist Abdul Kadir said the towering suspect never broke a sweat as he was led off the plane to awaiting police.
"He was calm," said Serge Devant, 28, who sat just a few seats in front of Kadir on the small Aeropostal charter plane leaving Trinidad and Tobago for Caracas last week.
Flight 861 was supposed to take off at 11:20 a.m., but the pilot said the plane was returning to the gate for reasons unknown.
"Kadir must have known the plane was stopped for him, but ... he wasn't sweating," Devant said. "When a big, tall security guy came onboard, he asked, 'Is there an Abdul Kadir here?'"
"The guy raised his hand. He didn't say a word, just got his briefcase and walked off. I guess he thought if he's going down, go down with dignity," said Devant, an international deejay.
Devant, who was on a whirlwind tour through Trinidad on his way to Panama, had seen Kadir in the waiting area as the deejay bought a coach seat on the flight.
"He was in a yellow suit, like MC Hammer used to wear. But he didn't look scary. He had a briefcase. He looked like an educated person. He didn't look like a terrorist - he looked like a businessman."
Devant had a window seat, 3A, in the first row of coach. Kadir had an aisle seat, four or five rows back.
As Kadir walked off the flight, Devant sent a text message of what happened to his agent but then forgot about the incident until his agent told him what was happening back in New York.
"I'm pretty sure I was the only American on the plane," Devant said. "Here I am, living in Brooklyn, going to JFK every week, and this guy wanted to blow it up. Incredible!"
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri..._recalls-2.html
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