Originally Posted by
Dovster
The questioning resulted in Richard Reid being searched thoroughly before being allowed on his El Al flight -- and somebody from Security being placed in the seat right next to him.
Had he intended to have the plane fall out of the sky he would not have succeeded. Only pure luck stopped him when he tried it on a flight to the US.
An anecdote I too remember.
And at CDG, even on the actual day of his now notorious (i.e., boarded and mostly flown) flight, he was also questioned and cleared by a person who used to work security at TLV.
And his shoe bomb wouldn't have brought the plane falling out of the sky either. It probably would have maimed him -- perhaps killed him -- and wounded a row or two of passengers .... if it could even go off, with or without passenger or crew intervention.
A proper screening for explosives would have prevented that too, without hoping to get lucky by way of questioning.