Police probe mid-air terror flight
The man who boarded a jetliner with explosives allegedly hidden in his shoes was a Sri Lankan national travelling on a British passport, French police disclosed today.
American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami was forced to make an emergency landing in Boston on Saturday after the passenger, identified by French police as Tariq Raja, tried to ignite what authorities called an improvised explosive in his sneakers.
An official with the French Border Police, which opened an investigation today into the incident, said they learned of Raja’s identity and nationality from sources in the United States.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not say whether the information came from US law enforcement authorities, government aviation officials or American Airlines.
Raja, who the French official said was travelling on a British passport under the name Richard Colvin Reid, was quickly subdued, and the jetliner with 185 passengers and 12 crew members on board landed safely at Logan International Airport.
French police also are checking out reports that Raja, 28, tried to take the same flight on Friday.
French authorities want to know how the passenger managed to get on board given the heightened security put in place after the September 11 terrorist hijackings in the United States.
‘‘For the moment, we do not know how this man got through,’’ said another official for French Border Police, which shares responsibility for security at all airports in France with the Interior Ministry.
‘‘He had a British passport, and we’re trying to determine whether it was falsified,’’ the official said.
The US Embassy in Paris, where security has been an overriding concern, had no immediate comment on the incident.
