A Detroit judge yesterday decided that the Nigerian “underwear bomber” who tried to blow up a packed airliner on Christmas Day 2009 must spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 25, pleaded guilty in October to eight charges, including the attempted murder of 289 people on board a Detroit-bound flight.

The botched attack, which pro-secutors say was a plot hatched by slain Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaqi, sparked global alarm, causing US to tighten up both its no-fly lists and airport screening systems.

The reputation of the US intelligence services also took a hit because Mr Abdulmutallab’s father, a prominent Nigerian banker, had warned the CIA about his son’s growing radicalisation.

Despite stringent security measures at airports in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Mr Abdulmutallab managed to smuggle 76 grams of the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate on board the flight from Amsterdam.

Luckily, the bomb hidden in his underwear failed to properly detonate and instead simply caused a fire as the plane began its descent into Detroit.

Passengers and crew members were able to restrain Mr Abdulmutallab and extinguish the blaze, allowing the two pilots to safely land the plane.

Mr Abdulmutallab’s court-appointed standby counsel filed a motion on Monday seeking a lesser sentence with the argument that life in prison is unwarranted because nobody else was actually injured.

But prosecutors had argued that the judge had to send a strong message to an unrepentant “terrorist” and give him the maximum allowable sentence on all eight counts.