USA/FRANCE: MAN ARRESTED BY U.S. POLICE AFTER BEING OVERPOWERED BY FLIGHT ATTENDANTS WHILE ATTEMPTING TO BLOW UP A TRANS-ATLANTIC AIRLINER

Record ID: 836761

  • Title: USA/FRANCE: MAN ARRESTED BY U.S. POLICE AFTER BEING OVERPOWERED BY FLIGHT ATTENDANTS WHILE ATTEMPTING TO BLOW UP A TRANS-ATLANTIC AIRLINER
  • Date: 22nd December 2001
  • Summary: (W3)BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS (DECEMBER 22, 2001) (REUTERS) STILL PHOTORGAPH OF SUSPECT IN CAR SITTING NEXT TO OFFICIAL / CLOSE-UP STILL OF SUSPECT'S FACE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS AND MIAMI, FLORIDA; UNITED STATES / CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT, ROISSY, FRANCE
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA8QJKEU90Q5LSALUHL0W6OGFPY
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A man who appeared to be trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic airliner with explosives packed in his shoes was in federal custody on Sunday after being overpowered by flight attendants and passengers aboard a plane from Paris to Miami.
    American Airlines Flight 63, a Boeing 767 carrying 185 passengers and 12 crew, was diverted to Boston's Logan International Airport under the escort of two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets on Saturday (December 22) after the struggle over the Atlantic.
    Officials at Logan airport told a news conference a man who appeared to be "of Middle Eastern descent" travelling on a false British passport had been arrested.
    Tom Kinton, director of aviation at Logan International airport in Boston, said the flight attendants and other passengers who tackled the man "prevented something very serious from occurring".
    He said a flight attendant had approached the man when he lit a match in mid-flight.
    "The flight attendants became alerted to a smell of sulphur, which is a match, and immediately took action when they saw what this individual was attempting to do, and literally tackled the individual, and got into a wrestling match in an attempt to subdue, and stop this action, and were successful in doing that," Kinton said.
    "Other passengers joined in to subdue this individual, and was ultimately strapped, and belted into row 29 of the aircraft, and was sedated by two doctors on board three different times en route to Boston," he added.
    "I do believe... when he was attempted to be subdued, he said he was wired, words to that effect."
    Kinton said the man had been carrying "enough improvised explosives to do damage".
    CNN reported that, during the struggle, the man had bitten a woman flight attendant. It said other passengers had used their belts to tie him up and doctors on the plane had given him sedatives three times.
    Two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets escorted the aircraft to Logan International airport.
    The suspect, who had been taken into custody and kept in a holding facility at Logan Airport, was moved from the airport late on Saturday evening. The suspect, seen leaving the airport wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, is facing a charge of interfering with a flight crew, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
    Police at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport said on Sunday (December 23) they could not explain how the man could have slipped through security and boarded the plane to Miami.
    Officials of the Air and Frontier Police (PAF), clearly embarrassed, disputed suggestions their security checks were deficient.
    American travellers lining up for trans-Atlantic flights were not impressed with security measures at Charles de Gaulle.
    "They should check everybody for their shoes," said Frederick Allardyce. They should put their shoes through the check-in, just like the baggage. Why should they allow anybody to carry anything on?
    "It's time to get serious," he said.
    "Paris should get serious just like America's serious about stopping this."
    Another American, who gave his name only as Bruce, said it was frightening to think what could happen on a flight.
    "You would hope that security would be a little better,"
    he said.
    "I expect the countries I'm visiting and my own country to protect me from stuff like that. That's part of being a citizen of the United States and being in a NATO country.
    "It's scary and I just hope they can fix it."
    But Paris airports had no plan to follow the example of Boston's Logan airport and ask passengers to put their shoes through X-ray machines to check for possible bombs, officials said.
    France's Europe 1 radio, quoting intelligence sources, said the bomb suspect had told FBI officials he was a Sri Lankan named Rajid. The officials considered this name a pseudonym.
    "One thing that's certain is that the man did spend some time in Belgium," the radio said.
    "They found on him a map of Brussels with places marked with a cross, notably a street close to the British embassy."
    The man was travelling on a false British passport apparently issued in Belgium three weeks ago, it said.
    The radio said its intelligence sources noted that several suspected members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network had recently passed through Brussels, where a sophisticated network for supplying false identity papers was known to operate Later on Sunday, passengers from the American Airlines Flight 63 finally arrived in Miami.
    One passenger said the passengers kept calm, for the most part, during the incident and he praised the action taken by the crew on board the plane.
    "I think it was about ten minutes after he'd actually been taken control (of) that there was the fear that there may be somebody else, and that you could tell that the stewardesses were very, very worried. They were looking around, they were very discreetly asking passengers who were seated near him if they'd seen him with anybody, but very discreetly because obviously they were, you know, they could have been talking to one of the passengers who was actually working with him," he said.
    Late on Sunday, FBI agents continued to question the suspect.
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