2001 shoe bomb plot

A Boeing 767-300 of American Airlines

On American Airlines Flight 63, a scheduled flight of American Airlines from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to Miami International Airport on 22 December 2001, an attempted terrorist attack occurred. During the flight became known as the shoe bomber Richard Reid in the media tried to detonate aboard manned by 197 persons Boeing 767-300 in his shoes hidden explosives.

Incident

About two hours after the start in Paris discovered a flight attendant, as a passenger ( Richard Reid, the assassin ) fumbled with matches and apparently tried to detonate an explosive charge in one of his shoes. When she tried to stop Reid from sat to defend this. The flight attendant called for help, after which succeeded one of her colleagues as well as several passengers to overpower Reid in a scuffle. Passengers and crew handcuffed Reid to a seat and an onboard doctor gave him a sedative.

After the incident, the flight was diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, where Reid was arrested.

Investigation

Investigations of the FBI revealed that the shoes each contained about 100 grams of plastic explosive PETN and the initiating explosive acetone peroxide. The latter should allow for ignition by a fuse.

Similar incident

On 25 December 2009, an assassin tried to ignite on the Northwest Airlines Flight 253, a smuggled on board explosive device.