When flying, people are requested to arrive at least two hours before their actual flight, to make sure there is plenty of time to make it through security. Airport security expects this from the travelers, so is it so much for the travelers to expect to be safe on their flight?

This sense of safety was once again shaken on Christmas Day, when Umar Farouq AbdulMutallab, a passenger on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Netherlands, attempted to detonate an explosive device just outside of Detroit, Michigan. This attempt was unsuccessful and resulted in a fire aboard the plane, which was quickly put out resulting in the apprehension of AbdulMutallab by the passengers and flight crew. He was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers after the plane landed in Detroit.

The 289 people who left Northwest Flight 253 were lucky to be alive after narrowly missing a potentially devastating terrorist attack; an attack that should not have happened in the first place.

AbdulMutallab’s attempted attack was a testimony to how unprepared we are in stopping terrorist acts of this sort. With the billions of tax dollars spent on national security each year, the creation of the Bureau of Homeland Security, and the new security devices and plans being implemented raises the question, “How much better off are we really?”

Through a simple review of what occurred leading up to this attempt, it was brought to light that ample material was presented to the U.S. security agencies to raise red flags with AbdulMutallab and have his visa revoked. His own father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria of his son’s suspicious actions. The process put in place to review these types of intel was not followed in this case, so he was allowed to travel as he so pleased; no questions asked.

According to State department spokesmen Ian Kelly, the details sent by the embassy in Nigeria were “insufficient for this interagency review process to make a determination that this individual’s visa should be revoked.”

Regardless of this fact, this and other information gathered about AbdulMutallab was supposed to have been evaluated, running them through databases comparing it to information gathered by other agencies. Since hundreds of reports and tips funnel through these agencies everyday, many are over looked and stop there, a fact that the 289 people who almost were killed on Christmas Day would find very comforting.

“When a suspected terrorist is able to board a plane with explosives on Christmas Day, the system has failed in a potentially disastrous way,” said President Obama according to CNN during a statement to reporters.

Obama said that he understands the imperfection of work and information that flows through intelligence agencies, “but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged.” He added, “that’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it.”

Obama called for a full review of the situation which will result in some drastic changes to be made in U.S. intelligence agencies to prevent a mess-up like this from happening again.

Along with this, 150 new full-body scanners, purchased before the bombing by the Transportation Security Agency for $170,000 a piece, will be installed in airports across the U.S. with an additional 300 units purchased by 2012. These scanners would have been able to stop the Christmas Day attempt according to former TSA official Charlotte Bryan, who said “I firmly believe in the whole body imaging system as a screening device.

Hopefully these steps will be enough to make up for the lack of security presented to us through an almost terrorist attack, and will protect the thousands of Americans who fly everyday. They’re doing their part so its time for the security agencies to do theirs.