Report: Man In Custody After Alleged "Shoe Bomb Attempt"

Photograph from Denver's CBS 4

Breaking story from Denver: ABC News reports, "Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to 'light his shoes on fire' on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News." However, it's unclear if there were explosives— NBC News says that an air marshal smelled smoke and confronted the man, who said he was trying to light his shoes: "It was uncertain if anything actually was on fire or if this was a joke, NBC reported. Investigators were looking to see what might be in his shoes."

What's more, the person in custody "was identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi. The FBI said the man had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul," according to ABC News.

Update 10:50 p.m.: NBC News' Pete Williams says, based on information so far, it seems like the diplomat was smoking and made an inappropriate remark in response to the air marshal's inquiry. And investigators reportedly did not find explosives in the shoes.

The plane landed safely—but it was guided to Denver International with F16 fighter planes.

Update 11:30 p.m. : A US security official tells ABC News "it may have been a massive misunderstanding" and the diplomat might have been "sarcastic" when he allegedly said, "I'm lighting my shoes on fire."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on April 7, 2010 10:38 PM

Comments [rss]

oeuf

"YOU'RE DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY HAS JUST BEEN REVOKED"

Words cannot describe how awesome that would have been had the air marshal put a hole in that guys head and said that!

AYCE

I'm more curious as to how this guy got on board with matches/lighter. Oh yeah, Diplomatic immunity...

nicemarmot

Considering I've gotten on my last dozen flights with bottles well over 3 ounces by just not taking them out of my bag - I'm thinking it wasn't too hard.

jibbly

People pass through security with lighters and matches all the time. A friend that I traveled with a few times never gets his lighter confiscated, but for some reason they did take away his brand new tube of toothpaste because it was over 4ozs.

Dirk

What kind of idiot tries to smoke on an airplane and then crack a joke about a shoe bomb?

ed_Extinct

diplomatic immunity needs to cease.

potsmoker

Investigators were looking to see what might be in his shoes.....

NAH SON, MY FEETS BE HAVIN DIPLOMATIX IMMUNTTAY!

BACK UP OFF MY KICKS.

DIPLOMAT BOYEEEEEE!

Eugene

Funny man! At least this guy is only killing us with his sense of humor.

RevWaldo

- al Modadi...I was terrified of him. Everyone was terrified of al Modadi. I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see al Modadi. Even bin Laden was frightened of al Modadi.

- What did he do?

- He used (shudders)...sarcasm. He knew all the tricks - dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and (gulps)...satire.

amg2000

Dinsdale....

jaycjay

What bad luck to light up in the restroom of one of the rare planes that actually has an air marshal aboard.

Darrell

Personally I'm laughing at all the terror alert sirens going off on the cable news networks. Man, could you imagine if this guy didn't have diplomatic immunity though? He'd be in jail, you'd have some pundet say he should be in Guantanamo Bay, the air marshal probably would have had a more damning story to tell.

ides_of_march

Damned Lutherans

Mollygizer

"a man who authorities say attempted to 'light his shoes on fir' on a United flight"

beware the ones with the evergreen shoes, folks.

Radtard

Diplomatic Immunity! Gotta get me some of that!

Jen S

Overreact overreact overreact!

Guest

OMG!!! THE WORLD'S GOING TO END!!! HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING SHIT!!!

personally, i think it's just another dude with misguided zeal... use that for world peace. hmm. :)

longacre

Diplomat, so he's probably on his way home already. Lucky the air marshal didn't shoot him between the eyes.

mrfelix

he's totally lucky that the marshall didn't in fact shoot first and ask more questions later. First off this idiot is trying to smoke on a plane. I haven't seen someone try to use a lighter or matches in who knows how long. Second, this idiot replies that he's lighting his shoe? There's no overreaction here, just a really stupid guy who needs to be arrested on sheer stupidity, i don't care that he's a diplomat. In fact, that makes this even worse.