The Nigerian man who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in the US passed all security checks at Schiphol Airport, authorities in the Netherlands said Saturday, dpa reported.

Officials from the National Counterterrorism Coordinator NCTb told reporters that the 23-year-old suspect had walked through a metal detector while his hand luggage had passed through an x-ray machine at Schiphol.

It is standard procedure at the airport in Amsterdam that all passengers boarding US-bound flights pass an individual security check at the gate. The suspect was travelling from Lagos in Nigeria to the US via Amsterdam.

The NCTb, which launched an investigation Saturday into the "operational affairs" prior to take off of Northwest Airlines flight 253 to Detroit, said it had transferred the passenger list with personal data before departure to US authorities.

US authorities subsequently gave permission for the arrival of all passengers, NCTb officials said.