South Florida flight attendant recalls helping thwart notorious ‘shoe bomber’

MIAMI – Thursday is 21-year anniversary of when a South Florida flight attendant helped take down a shoe bombing terrorist, eternally altering the best way we journey.

Again on Dec. 22 of 2001, American Airways Flight 63 was heading to Miami from Paris when flight attendant Hermis Moutardier was alerted a couple of passenger lighting matches.

She requested the person what he was doing, and warned him that smoking was not allowed on the aircraft.

“He mainly put a match in his mouth like he was cleansing his tooth, and that may be a very European customized,” she recalled.

However as Moutardier walked again to the cockpit space, she was reminded of 1 very important element: “I used to be like, ‘okay, in the course of the meal service, he didn’t need to eat something. Why is he cleansing his tooth?’”

Moutardier’s intuition advised her to confront the person once more.

“He ignored me, so what I did: I simply grabbed him and pulled him,” she recalled. “And that’s once I noticed the shoe in between his legs. The match in his hand, lit!”

The person was 28 yr outdated Richard Reid, a British nationwide who would come to be referred to as the “Shoe Bomber.”

In a matter of seconds, Moutardier mentioned she was bodily preventing with him within the aisle.

“The one factor that I bear in mind is that I attempt to seize the shoe. He pushed me to the ground,” she mentioned.

Different crew members and passengers pounced, restraining Reid with seatbelt extenders and holding him down. A health care provider onboard gave him sedatives.

After greater than 4 tense hours, Flight 63 was diverted to Boston the place an FBI agent positioned him beneath arrest.

Authorities confirmed there have been practical improvised explosive units in each of Reid’s sneakers.

Moutardier was questioned by officers and later rushed to the hospital, the place she mentioned docs began to understand she suffered intensive accidents from her tussle with Reid.

Within the years following, many modifications to safety protocol had been put in place and new federal companies had been shaped.

However Moutardier’s life modified as effectively.

“I went by means of surgical procedure in my shoulder,” she mentioned, noting different illnesses in her hand and head as effectively.

She additionally undergoes bodily remedy each few weeks, one thing she is going to doubtless want for the remainder of her life.

“I’ve been having bodily remedy for 21 years,” she mentioned.

However when Moutardier made the choice to return to work after the assault, and insisted her first flight was the identical Paris to Miami journey.

“It was very traumatic, however I wanted to do it,” she mentioned.

She has a cupboard full medals for her bravery, was lately honored by the French Consulate in New York, and celebrated her retirement from American Airways after 30 years of service.

Reid is in a most safety jail for all times.

“It’s one of many issues I’ll always remember in my entire life, the hate he has in opposition to humanity, the hate in opposition to, perhaps me – as a result of I didn’t let him do what he needed to do.” Moutardier mentioned. “I’m very grateful as a result of I really feel like this check was given to me, and the outcomes is I’m nonetheless alive. Ii suppose it’s going to take greater than only a terrorist to cease my life.”