The Attempted Shoe Bombing of Flight 63
Richard Reid attempted to attack American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001.
Published · Updated · 1 min read
The Event
Richard Reid attempted to attack American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001. Passengers and crew restrained him, and the aircraft diverted.
The Wider Story
The incident led to criminal prosecution and changes in aviation security practice. The people who intervened played an important part in preventing disaster.
Putting the Event in Perspective
Reid's later guilty plea and sentence were separate events.
Reading the Historical Record
Avoid technical explosive details, an operational reenactment or invented dialogue from passengers.
About the Historical Recreation
The accompanying visual is an illustrative reconstruction: a generic 2001 airliner at an airport and a restrained aviation-security archive, no attack reenactment. It is not authentic archival footage, an eyewitness record or additional evidence for the event.
Sources
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