Plane Diverted After Explosives Scare BOSTON (AP) - A passenger on a jetliner bound from Paris to Miami tried to ignite an "improvised explosive" in his shoe, but the crew and fellow passengers subdued him, authorities said. The plane, escorted by military jets, landed safely in Boston. The suspect, identified as Richard Reid, was taken into custody by the FBI. Officials said he was traveling on a British passport. "I'm told the flight attendant was drawn to him by the smell of sulfur from a lit match, and then challenged him as to what he was doing," said Thomas Kinton, interim executive director of the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport. A flight attendant intervened after the man tried to light his shoe on fire, and the 6-foot-4 Reid resisted and bit her, Massport spokeswoman Laura White said. Passengers subdued him, belting him into his seat. Two doctors used the airplane's onboard medical kit to sedate him, and the man's shoe, which had protruding wires, was removed. Two F-15 fighter jets escorted the plane, American Airlines Flight 63, to Logan, where it landed at 12:50 p.m. with police, fire and bomb squads standing by. The 185 passengers and 12 crew members were taken off safely. "They X-rayed the shoe and found that in the heel, there were holes drilled, and there looked to be a detonator wire, and the substances consistent with (the explosive) C-4," White said. The shoe was taken from the plane, rendered harmless and taken to an FBI laboratory for analysis, White said White said Reid's passport, issued in Belgium three weeks ago, was "questionable." He boarded the plane without luggage or additional identification. Reid was being interrogated at the airport by the FBI. The other passengers were also being questioned, White said. The intervention on the flight "appeared to have prevented something very serious from occurring," Kinton said. The FBI's Kim McAllister confirmed that one man was being held in FBI custody for "interference with a flight crew," but had had not been arrested. --
