On December 22, 2001—just months after the 9/11 attacks—Richard Reid boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami with homemade bombs hidden in his shoes.
During the flight, Reid tried to detonate his shoes, but he struggled to light the fuse. Crew members and passengers noticed and restrained him.
The plane diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, and Massachusetts State Police officers took Reid into custody. Reid told FBI agents that he made the shoes himself.
This is the pair of shoes [Richard] Reid—also known as the “shoe bomber”—tried to detonate. FBI bomb techs determined that the shoes contained about 10 ounces of explosive material.
It’s all dependent on the TSA agents. They’re idiots with power to their heads. They make up rules on the spot and you can’t do shit about it.
I fly just about every month to different locations and it’s completely random what you need to take off and take out of your bag.
So true! In spite of this level of control, when tested by the fed I think something like 48 or 49 out of 50 “bombs” (obviously not real bombs) made it through TSA security checks.
And they will act personally offended if you don’t know automatically what they want.