Source: Plane Bomb Suspect Chose Vulnerable Seat

(FOX NEWS) - The man accused of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day appeared to have deliberately chosen a vulnerable seat on the plane, an expert says.

A government official told Fox News Saturday that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was sitting in seat 19A, which, according to the official, is above the plane's fuel tanks and wing and next to the skin of the aircraft.

In the event of an explosion, the official said, there is a high likelihood that it would be accelerated by the fuel tank, increasing the chance that the plane’s structure would be damaged and the plane would be brought down.

The official who spoke to Fox News has not been briefed on the investigation into Abdulmutallab's attempted attack, but was intimately involved in investigations of a 2006 plot to detonate liquid explosives on airliners.

The official said when homeland security officials analyze attempted plane attack plots, the suspect's seat selection is one of the first things they check.

Abdulmutallab was charged Saturday with attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device on an aircraft. He met with a U.S. District Court judge at a hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., where Abdulmutallab is being treated for burns and injuries he sustained in the attempted attack.