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, forever changing the way we travel.

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

She asked the man what he was doing, and warned him that smoking was not allowed on the plane.

“He basically put a match in his mouth like he was cleaning his teeth, and that is a very European custom,” she recalled.

But as Moutardier walked back to the cockpit area, she was reminded of one vital detail: “I was like, ‘okay, during the meal service, he didn’t want to eat anything. Why is he cleaning his teeth?’”

Moutardier’s instinct told her to confront the man again.

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

The man was 28 year old Richard Reid, a British national who would come to be known as the “Shoe Bomber.”

In a matter of seconds, Moutardier said she was physically fighting with him in the aisle.

“The only thing that I remember is that I try to grab the shoe. He pushed me to the floor,” she said.

Other crew members and passengers pounced, restraining Reid with seatbelt extenders and holding him down. A doctor onboard gave him sedatives.

After more than four tense hours, Flight 63 was diverted to Boston where an FBI agent placed him under arrest.

Authorities confirmed there were functional improvised explosive devices in both of Reid’s sneakers.

Moutardier was questioned by officials and later rushed to the hospital, where she said doctors started to realize she suffered extensive injuries from her tussle with Reid.

In the years following, many changes to security protocol were put in place and new federal agencies were formed.

But Moutardier’s life changed as well.

“I went through surgery in my shoulder,” she said, noting other ailments in her hand and head as well.

She also undergoes physical therapy every few weeks, something she will likely need for the rest of her life.

“I’ve been having physical therapy for 21 years,” she said.

But when Moutardier made the decision to go back to work after the attack, and insisted her first flight was the same Paris to Miami trip.

“It was very traumatic, but I needed to do it,” she said.

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

Reid is in a maximum security prison for life.

“It’s one of the things I will never forget in my whole life, the hate he has against humanity, the hate against, maybe me – because I didn’t let him do what he wanted to do.” Moutardier said. “I’m very thankful because I feel like this test was given to me, and the results is I am still alive. Ii think it’s going to take more than just a terrorist to stop my life.”