Flight attendant testifies in 'Shoebomber' hearing
As many as 100 passengers left their seats on a transatlantic flight to restrain Richard Reid as he allegedly tried to light explosives hidden in his shoes, a flight attendant testified.
Carole Nelson, the lead flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 63, said she saw the London man struggling with other attendants and passengers.
"He was wild. He had wild eyes. He was struggling. He was like a wild animal,'' she said. Nelson testified during a hearing yesterday in Boston on Reid's motion to suppress a confession he allegedly made after his arrest.
Reid's lawyers say the confession should not be allowed because it was made after he was injected with sedatives during the struggle to subdue him.
Prosecutors claim the sedatives had little or no effect on Reid by the time he had a formal interview with police later that day.
The hearing on the confession was scheduled to continue today. Also yesterday, a judge threw out one of nine charges against Reid, ruling that an airliner is not a vehicle under a new anti-terrorism law.
The charge - attempting to wreck a mass transportation vehicle - was filed under the USA Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
US District Judge William Young said that although an airliner was engaged in mass transportation, it is not a vehicle as defined by the new law.
Reid is accused of trying to blow up the American Airlines plane during its flight from Paris to Miami three days before Christmas. He still faces eight charges, including attempted murder and attempted destruction of an aircraft.
Reid has been held without bail since his arrest. His trial is scheduled to begin on November 4.
