At 07:58 PM 12/22/01, you wrote: >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,
What was this guy thinking? Everyone knows they won't let you smoke anything on an airplane, even footwear. Better yet, what had he been smoking _before_ he got on the airplane, when he thought up this scheme? > 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. Unless this guy was wearing 70s disco era shoes with chunky soles, how much explosive could one get into a hollowed-out shoe heel and how much damage could it do? Perhaps, if he pressed it up against a window, he might make a hole and decompress the cabin, though in that case _he_ would probably have been the first one sucked out . . . >The shoe was taken from the plane, rendered harmless I'm still not going to make an Odor-Eaters joke. >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. Or a clue. >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. >-- Please note that my comments above are not to make light of a potentially serious situation, either in this case or the general problem of airline security, but just to point out that this guy's elevator obviously does not stop on all the floors. -- Ronn! :) God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam� God bless America! My home, sweet home. -- Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
