A U.S. federal judge has ordered life in prison for a Nigerian man who turned away from a privileged life and tried to blow up an international airplane with nearly 300 people during a suicide mission for al-Qaeda.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the same defiant man who four months ago pleaded guilty to all charges related to the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear on Christmas 2009. He seemed to relish his mandatory sentence and defended his actions as rooted in the Qu'ran.

Earlier, four passengers and a crew member aboard Flight 253 told U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds that the event forever changed their lives.

Abdulmutallab looked uninterested during their remarks he rarely looked up while seated just a few feet away, wearing a white skull cap and an over-sized prison T-shirt.

Abdulmutallab "has never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission," said Judge Edmunds. "In contrast, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission."