Airliner bomb threat foiled
Struggle forces plane to Logan
By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff and Megan Tench Globe Staff, Globe Correspondent,
12/23/2001
An American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami carrying 197 passengers and crew
was diverted to Logan Airport yesterday after a passenger traveling on a ''suspect''
British passport tried to ignite ''improvised explosives'' concealed in his shoes,
authorities said.
The passenger, whose passport identified him as Richard Reid, 28, was subdued
by other passengers and crew members after he tried to light a cigarette and was
confronted by a flight attendant.
During the confrontation, Reid allegedly took off one of his shoes and tried to ignite
a cord extending from it with matches, said Thomas Kinton, interim executive
director of the Massachusetts Port Authority.
''We're told by the bomb teams on board that this, if it indeed is an improvised
explosive, that there certainly is enough there to do sufficient damage to an aircraft
in flight, certainly,'' Kinton said. The intervention on the flight ''appeared to have
prevented something very serious from occurring,'' he said.
According to MassPort officials, it took at least two flight attendants and six
passengers to subdue the 6-foot-4-inch Reid as he struggled to ignite his shoe.
Two doctors on the flight injected Reid three times with sedatives from an
on-board medical kit, and then helped buckle him into his seat with special belts
and other emergency equipment. Passengers said several people poured water on
Reid, while someone threatened him with a fire extinguisher during the scuffle.
''He was struggling, he was a real powerful guy, but we were five or six people,''
said Thierry Dugeon, 38, a former TV newsman from Paris who helped subdue
Reid. ''Of course, the first thing you think about is terrorism.''
French passengers Eric Debry, 42, and his wife, Arlette, who were seated in the
row behind Reid's, said it was fortunate that several people rushed the suspect and
that there were doctors on board to quickly tranquilize him.
''If the two doctors had not been on the plane, what would we have done?'' Arlette
Debry said. ''The passengers were very active, but I think it was a question of
minutes.''
Two flight attendants sustained minor injuries in the scuffle. One of them was bitten
on the hand and later treated at Massachusetts General Hospital and released.
Passengers described Reid as pale-skinned, with long, curly dark hair. When crew
members asked Reid's nationality, he told them that he was Jamaican, but a
passenger, Philippe Acax, 39, said he was told by a crew member that Reid had
conversed with the crew member in Arabic. As Reid was being subdued, two
F-15 fighters from Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod were ordered to accompany
the plane to Logan after it entered American airspace.
A runway at the airport was closed to allow American Flight 63 to land
immediately as it approached about 12:50 p.m. After the passengers were taken
off the plane, Reid's shoes were X-rayed by State Police and FBI bomb experts.
Kinton said that the shoes contained ''improvised explosives'' capable of doing
damage.
Authorities identify virtually any terrorist bomb that is not stolen from a military
arsenal as ''improvised explosive devices.'' The shoes, which were wrapped in a
blanket and stowed in the rear of the plane during the flight, were being analyzed by
FBI specialists last night to determine what, if any, explosive material they
contained.
Quoting sources in Washington, the Washington Post reported that a preliminary
examination of the shoes by bomb-sniffing dogs had shown no explosives.
In addition, Massachusetts State Trooper Robert Mulloney said he had been told
by some of the passengers that the material Reid had been attempting to light was
pieces of paper that he had stuffed in his shoes.
Reid, who initially was taken to the State Police's Logan Airport barracks, was in
federal custody last night. A US government official in Washington, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said it had not been determined whether the incident was
an attempted terrorist act.
Laura White, a MassPort spokeswoman, quoted the bomb specialists as saying
holes had been drilled into the heels of both shoes and filled with what appeared to
be strands of detonator cords and a substance ''consistent with the explosive C-4.''
According to one Massport official, who asked not to be identified, Reid told a
state trooper as he was being taken into custody ''you'll find out,'' when he was
asked what he was trying to do.
The official also said that Reid had tried to take the same flight from Paris on Friday
but had been denied access by airport personnel in Paris for unknown reasons.
President Bush and Thomas Ridge, director of Homeland Security, were briefed on
the incident, according to the White House. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the
White House had been monitoring the situation since early yesterday, adding that
the FBI was leading the investigation.
Reid, sedated from the three injections, remained buckled in his seat during the two
hours that it took the plane to reach Logan. MassPort officials said commercial
flights are routinely equipped with medical kits that contain syringes and sedatives,
but that flight attendants usually are not trained to use the equipment. In
emergencies, they are directed to ask if any passengers are trained to use the
equipment.
The flight departed DeGaulle airport in Paris about 6 a.m. EDT. FAA air
controllers informed MassPort officials at 10:50 a.m. that an incident had taken
place aboard the plane and it was being diverted to Logan. The airport remained
open throughout the day.
Acting Governor Jane Swift praised the action of the attendants and passengers in
subduing Reid, in a statement last night.
''Their heroic acts may have potentially saved the lives of the nearly 200 people on
board Flight 63,'' she said.
Passengers said the crew and flight attendants maintained calm aboard the flight
following the incident and even played a movie, ''Legally Blonde,'' as the plane
headed to Logan.
The bomb specialists took the suspect's shoes off the plane and sought to render
them harmless by spraying them with a fire hose, but there was no detonation,
White said. Another Massport official who was briefed on the incident, however,
said he had been told that there appeared to be a ''puff of smoke'' that came from
one of the shoes.
C-4 is a military plastic explosive. Its main ingredient is RDX, which is also used in
fireworks. The puttylike substance can easily be molded by hand and can be
detonated if burned. Press accounts have described C-4 is a ''very stable
explosive'' that requires a detonator to set it off.
The shoes were turned over to the FBI for further analysis, White said. Reid, who
faces charges of assault and interference with a flight crew, was being questioned
by agents from the FBI and INS, White said.
The passengers and crew were questioned extensively by federal and state
investigators in a closed-off space at Logan. Airport officials said the passengers
were later put on a different plane to Miami.
White said Reid's passport, issued in Belgium three weeks ago, was
''questionable.'' He boarded the plane without luggage or additional identification,
she said. Another MassPort official said Reid had other identification documents
that appeared to be in another person's name.
Although airport security has been stepped up worldwide since Sept. 11, security
specialists have been concerned about the possibility of concealing weapons in
shoes.
MassPort spokesman Philip Orlandella said last night that because of yesterday's
incident, the agency had issued a special directive to all airline security to make
certain that passengers' shoes are thoroughly checked when passing through metal
detectors.
When an airport metal detector is set off, a passenger receives a second screening
by an airport employee using a hand magnetometer that passes over their shoes.
Douglas R. Laird, a former Secret Service agent and now an aviation security
consultant, said that in some instances, the employee will not wave the hand wand
all the way to a passenger's ankles or feet.
One passenger, Allison Cohen, 21, of Wayland, exited the plane and telephoned
her father to tell him she was all right. He drove to the airport, where police
allowed him to speak to her briefly before taking her and all other passengers and
crew to a closed-off area at Terminal B for questioning.
''I'm doing better after I saw her,'' said Jeff Cohen of Newport, R.I. His daughter, a
college student studying in Paris, was on her way to Florida for a vacation. He said
she told him she had not seen the scuffle.
David Abel, Marcella Bombardieri, Glen Johnson, and Robert Schlesinger of
the Globe Staff and Globe correspondents Patrick J. Calnan and Szymon
Twarog contributed to this report.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 12/23/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. |
