From today's New York Times:

Obama administration officials scrambled to portray the episode, in which passengers and flight attendants subdued Mr. Abdulmutallab and doused the fire he had started, as a test that the air safety system passed.The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days, Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary said, in an interview on This Week on ABC. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, used nearly the same language on Face the Nation on CBS, saying that in many ways, this system has worked.

Update:Putting things in context:

Ms. Napolitano said Monday on NBCS Today that her remark the day before the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days had been taken out of context. Our system did not work in this instance, she said. No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.