Attendant who thwarted shoe bomber blocks move from supermax prison

2023-07-17

Heroine flight attendant who thwarted shoe bomber on American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami just months after 9/11 blocks his move from supermax prison

Cristina Jones, 61, said she has been informed that ‘shoe-bomber’ Richard Reid has been trying to transfer
He currently stays in Colorado prison ADX Florence, also known as ‘The Alcatraz of the Rockies’
Jones, who helped stop his attempt to detonate explosives, said she requested he not be transferred

A flight attendant who thwarted the British man who tried to detonate explosives in his shoe on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 says he has been pushing to move from his supermax prison back to his native England.

Cristina Jones, 61, said she has been informed that ‘shoe-bomber’ Richard Reid has been trying to transfer from Colorado prison ADX Florence, also known as ‘The Alcatraz of the Rockies’, to a nicer confinement closer to home.

‘I was contacted as they were notifying me he had made a petition to be transferred back to the UK,’ Jones said.

Reid is serving life without parole after he tried to set off the shoe bombs on a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight just months after the September 11 attacks.

Though it’s not clear the exact prison Reid would have been transferred to, Jones says she was asked what her thoughts were on the possibility.

Reid is serving life without parole after he tried to set off the shoe bombs on a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight just months after the September 11 attacks

‘It was my understanding that they would always contact me with updates of which they previously did,’ she told The Mirror.

‘They sought my opinion over his petition, which was, of course, negative. I opposed his move back to Britain.’

In addition, Jones claims that Reid was ‘missing’ from the prison system for about two weeks recently.

Benjamin O’Cone, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, confirmed that he had been outside BOP custody for a brief period.

‘There are several reasons why an inmate may be referenced as ‘not in BOP custody. Inmates who were previously in BOP custody and who have not completed their sentence may be outside BOP custody for a period of time for court hearings, medical treatment or for other reasons.’

‘We do not provide specific information on the status of inmates who are not in the custody of the BOP for safety, security, or privacy reasons.’

Jones was still disturbed by the idea that he wasn’t being kept track of.

‘His disappearance from the prison system was shocking to me. I was under the understanding that any new developments of his custody would be relayed to me. I would like to know why he was not in custody and where he was.’

Colorado prison ADX Florence, also known as ‘The Alcatraz of the Rockies’

He was jailed in 2003 jailing for trying to blow up the plane, which was carrying 197 passengers, by detonating explosives in his shoes. His shoes are pictured in 2011 beside an FBI model as part of an exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, DC

Reid has since been returned to ADX Florence.

He was jailed in 2003 for trying to blow up the plane, which was carrying 197 passengers, by detonating explosives in his shoes.

During his trial, he told the court that he was an enemy of the U.S. and ‘a soldier of Allah’.

The court heard how passengers complained of smoke in the cabin shortly after an in-flight meal.

Reid was discovered sitting alone trying to light a match, where flight attendants told him smoking was forbidden.

Jones was able to slow him down, grabbing onto him, only to watch him bite her finger so hard it left permanent scarring.

‘It’s a situation where you have to do something. At that moment, there wasn’t a lot of time to make a choice,’ she said.

Stewards and passengers were able to subdue him by binding him with plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions and headphone cords.

Reid was jailed in 2003 for trying to blow up the plane, which was carrying 197 passengers, by detonating explosives in his shoes

Reid, who is serving life without parole in a Colorado prison known as ‘The Alcatraz of the Rockies’, tried to set off the bombs on a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight. He had placed the bombs in the bottom of his shoes (pictured)

The plane was then diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts.

Reid pleaded guilty to eight counts of terrorism, including placing a bomb on a commercial aircraft, attempted murder and interfering with a flight crew.

Tests on the explosives later revealed that Reid, who had been denied access to a flight 24 hours earlier because of his agitated behavior, had been walking in rainy weather which had caused the fuse to be too damp to ignite.

His attempted bombing led to heightened security at airports across the world, with all airline passengers departing from the U.S. now having to pass through airport security in socks or bare feet while their shoes are scanned.

Other countries choose passengers at random to undergo the screening.

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