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Incident

As Flight 63 was flying over the Atlantic Ocean, Richard Reid, an Islamic fundamentalist from the United Kingdom and self-proclaimed al-Qaeda operative, carried shoes that were packed with two types of explosives. He had been refused permission to board the flight the day before.¹²

Passengers on the flight complained of a smoky smell shortly after the meal service. One flight attendant, Hermis Moutardier, walked the aisles of the plane to locate the source. She found Reid sitting alone near a window, attempting to light a match. Moutardier warned him that smoking was not allowed on board the aircraft, and Reid promised to stop.³

A few minutes later, Moutardier found Reid leaning over in his seat and unsuccessfully attempted to get his attention. After she asked him what he was doing, Reid grabbed at her, revealing one shoe in his lap, a fuse leading into the shoe, and a lit match. He was unable to detonate the bomb: perspiration from his feet dampened the triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and prevented it from igniting.⁴

Moutardier tried grabbing Reid twice, but he pushed her to the floor each time, and she screamed for help. When another flight attendant, Cristina Jones, arrived to try to subdue Reid, he fought her and bit her thumb.⁵

The 6-foot-4-inch-tall (1.93 m) Reid, who weighed 215 pounds (98 kg), was subdued by the flight attendants and other passengers and immobilized by the cabin crew using plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions, and headphone cords. A doctor administered diazepam found in the flight kit of the aircraft.⁶ Many of the passengers only became aware of the situation when the pilot announced that the flight was to be diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston.⁷[additional citation(s) needed]

Two F-15 fighter jets escorted Flight 63 to Logan Airport. The plane parked in the middle of the runway, and Reid was arrested on the ground while the rest of the passengers were bussed to the main terminal. Authorities later found over 280 grams (10 ounces) of TATP and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) hidden in the hollowed soles of Reid's shoes,⁸ which, if detonated, would have blown a significant hole in the aircraft and likely caused it to crash.⁹ He pleaded guilty, and he was convicted, sentenced to three life terms plus 110 years without parole and incarcerated at ADX Florence, a supermax federal prison in Colorado.

Aftermath

Six months after the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens, New York, on November 12, 2001, Mohammed Mansour Jabarah agreed to cooperate with American authorities in exchange for a reduced sentence. He said that fellow Canadian Abderraouf Jdey had been responsible for the flight's destruction, using a shoe bomb similar to that found on Reid several months earlier. However, it was revealed during the crash investigation that pilot error, not terrorism, brought down the plane. Jabarah was a known colleague of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and said that Reid and Jdey had both been enlisted by the al-Qaeda chief to participate in identical plots.¹⁰¹¹

In 2006, security procedures at American airports were changed in response to this incident, with passengers required to remove their shoes before proceeding through scanners.¹² The requirement was phased out for some travelers, particularly those with TSA PreCheck, in 2011.¹³ Also in 2011, the rules were relaxed to allow children 12 and younger and adults 75 and older to keep their shoes on during security screenings.¹⁴

See also

• United States portal
• Aviation portal

• Pan Am Flight 103, Pan Am plane destroyed by a PETN bomb, killing 270 people – event happened exactly 13 years prior to the shoe bombing incident
• 1994 Philippine Airlines Flight 434, test run for al-Qaeda Operation Bojinka, killing one plane passenger in bombing
• 1995 Bojinka plot, al-Qaeda plot to blow up 12 planes as they flew from Asia to the US
• 2006 Transatlantic Aircraft Plot, failed plot to blow up at least 10 planes as they flew from the UK to the US and Canada
• 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, failed al-Qaeda PETN bombing of plane
• 2010 cargo plane bomb plot, failed al-Qaeda PETN bombing of plane
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• List of terrorist incidents, 2001
• September 11 attacks

External links

• Bomb on Flight 63 Telegraph Media Group Limited 2015

References

1. Belluck, Pam Belluck; McNeil Jr, Donald G. (December 25, 2001). "A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SUSPECT; Officials Remain Uncertain On Identity of Suspect on Jet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 28, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/25/us/nation-challenged-suspect-officials-remain-uncertain-identity-suspect-jet.html ↩

2. "Shoe bomb suspect to remain in custody". CNN. December 25, 2001. Archived from the original on April 4, 2002. Retrieved December 31, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/24/investigation.plane/ ↩

3. Thomas, Cathy Booth (September 1, 2002). "Courage in the Air". Time. Archived from the original on June 4, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20100604162640/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020909/aattendants.html ↩

4. "Terrorist Use Of TATP Explosive". Opensourcesinfo.org. July 25, 2005. Archived from the original on July 17, 2010. Retrieved January 18, 2010. http://www.opensourcesinfo.org/journal/2005/7/25/terrorist-use-of-tatp-explosive.html ↩

5. Thomas, Cathy Booth (September 1, 2002). "Courage in the Air". Time. Archived from the original on June 4, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20100604162640/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020909/aattendants.html ↩

6. Thomas, Cathy Booth (September 1, 2002). "Courage in the Air". Time. Archived from the original on June 4, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20100604162640/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020909/aattendants.html ↩

7. "U.S. v. Reid Complaint" (PDF). United States district court. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2010 – via Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20120301162226/http://nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/U.S._v_Reid_Complaint.pdf ↩

8. "Shoe bomb suspect to remain in custody". CNN. December 25, 2001. Archived from the original on April 4, 2002. Retrieved December 31, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/24/investigation.plane/ ↩

9. "Richard Reid's Shoes". https://www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/richard-reids-shoes ↩

10. Mili, Hayder (July 28, 2005). "Securing the Northern Front: Canada and the War on Terror" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 16, 2008. Retrieved November 14, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081116015239/http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/uploads/ter_003_015.pdf ↩

11. Ressa, Maria (December 6, 2003). "Sources:Reid is al Qaeda operative". CNN. Archived from the original on January 4, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2006. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/01/30/reid.alqaeda/ ↩

12. "TSA Travel Assistant". Tsa.gov. Transportation Security Administration. September 26, 2006. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110511230241/http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/screening/index.shtm ↩

13. O'Keefe, Ed; Halsey III, Ashley (September 6, 2011). "Shoe removal requirement at airports to be phased out". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 21, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/shoe-removal-requirement-at-airports-to-be-phased-out/2011/09/06/gIQAknLD7J_story.html ↩

14. Hilkevitch, Jon (October 9, 2011). "TSA: Children pose little risk, can keep shoes on during security check". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 13, 2020. https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-xpm-2011-10-09-chi-tsa-children-pose-little-risk-can-keep-shoes-on-during-security-check-20111009-story.html ↩