Posted on 12/22/2001 8:38:22 PM PST by classygreeneyedblonde
BOSTON (AP) -- Thierry Dugeon said the first he knew anything was wrong on American Airlines Flight 63 was when he heard a flight attendant 10 rows in front of him cry out, ``I need some help!'' `
`I was there in five seconds, and there were already two or three guys on him,'' Dugeon said Saturday after the Paris-to-Miami-bound jet landed safely at Boston. ``It was like everybody knew what they needed to do. It's pure instinct because it goes so fast. You're not going to think twice.''
Authorities said a man carrying a British passport in the name of Richard Reid may have been carrying explosives in the heel of his shoes and was trying to set fire to one of them when a flight attendant smelled sulfur and intervened.
Dugeon estimated that five to six male passengers subdued Reid -- who resisted at first -- using belts to bind his hands, waist, chest and feet. Two doctors injected him with a sedative from the onboard medical kit. `
`It's three months after Sept. 11. Of course, the first thing you think of is it's something to do with terrorism,'' he said.
Dugeon, a 36-year-old television reporter from Paris, said he was seated in Row 39, 10 rows behind Reid. He said he had noticed the man in the airport when boarding and there was nothing that made Reid stand out.
Dugeon said after the man was subdued, passengers searched him, found the British passport, and questioned him about whether he spoke French, English or Arabic.
Dugeon said Reid told the passengers was Jamaican, but they didn't believe him. A law enforcement source who asked not be identified said Reid was not Middle Eastern.
Over the next two hours, passengers took turns watching the sedated Reid while the crew showed the movie ``Legally Blonde.'' When the plane neared Boston, the captain told them that fighter jets would escort them to Logan. After landing, all the passengers stayed seated until the police came and took the suspect off.
Dugeon described Reid's footwear as hightop-type basketball sneakers, and said he had tried to light the front of his sneakers.
In a related matter, a man named Achmed Muhammed, from Peoria, filed suit saying he had been "profiled" by airport security and denied a flight following the Flight 63 incident.
Achmed's shoes
What the hay, mon... you mean you DON'T think he's a Jamaican???
They tied him up, strapped him to a seat, and made him watch "Legally Blonde", and you say he's lucky that he wasn't beaten to death?
Suffocated, on the other hand, is VERY likely. One of the subduers at the bottom of the dog-pile has the perp in a choke hold, and after a few minutes they notice that he is not struggling anymore.
This happened to a lunatic on a domestic flight a year or two ago. The family of the deceased wanted to make it a murder case, excessive force etc, grand jury said "justifiable".
Yo, you like light the bud in the hole by the toe and suck in the smoke from the shoe top.
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