'How we tackled alleged shoe bomber' - Air hostesses

Two air hostesses today described how they tackled a British man as he allegedly tried to blow up an American Airlines plane over the Atlantic.

Richard Reid was travelling from Paris, France, to Miami, Florida last December when it is claimed he tried to light a fuse protruding from his shoe.

In today’s Time magazine, flight attendants Cristina Jones and Hermis Moutardier talk for the first time of how they fought the alleged shoe bomber.

Ms Jones says she was bitten on the hand as she struggled with the suspect.

In the interview, the pair explain how the pre-Christmas Flight 63 was busy and late taking off from Paris, but initially all seemed normal on board.

One passenger - 29-year-old Reid - did arouse their curiosity, however, when he refused to eat or drink anything.

Then, about two hours out of Paris, passengers reported smelling smoke and Mrs Moutardier walked up and down the aisles looking for the source of the smell.

She discovered Reid, seated alone by a window, trying to light a match and warned him that smoking was not allowed.

She says he promised to stop, then began picking his teeth with the blackened matchstick. A few minutes later, she saw him bend over in his seat.

“I thought, ‘He’s smoking’,” Mrs Moutardier told Time magazine. “It got me mad. I was talking to him, saying, ‘Excuse me’, but he just ignored me. I leaned in and said, ‘What are you doing?”’

As she pulled at him, he turned and she saw what he was doing - she says: “He’s got the shoe off, between his legs. All I see is the wiring and the match. The match was lit.”

She grabbed him twice but both times he pushed her away.

Mrs Moutardier, 47, then ran to the back of the plane to get help and shouted “Get him! Go!” to Ms Jones.

Ms Jones rushed out and saw that Reid “was very intent on doing something”.

She says: “I didn’t talk to him or ask him what he was doing. I just knew it in my mind. I yelled, ‘Stop it!’ and grabbed him around the upper body.

“I tried to pull him up. And that’s when he bit me.”

She screamed and passengers started moving towards her to help restrain him.

Ms Jones says: “I couldn’t get my hand out of his mouth. I thought he was going to rip my hand apart it hurt so bad. It was surreal.”

Finally, Reid let go and Ms Jones, 40, ran for the fire extinguisher while Mrs Moutardier got passengers to pass down bottles of water to pour on him.

Other crew members arrived on the scene and Reid was tied up with belts, headphone cords and a seatbelt extension.

The plane was diverted to Boston and when it landed Reid was taken away by the FBI.

Ms Jones, who lives in Florida, says of her ordeal: “Most of it was instinct and the knowledge of the September 11 attacks.

“I don’t believe I would have grabbed Reid the way I did had I not known about September 11. I don’t know that the passengers would have come to my aid so quickly had they not known about September 11.”

Mrs Moutardier, who hopes to return to work next month, is still trying to put the incident behind her.

She says: “I’m putting a lot of positive thoughts in my head. I cannot live in fear. I’m stronger. We’re all stronger, I’m gaining back my life, little by little.”

Reid’s trial is scheduled to begin on November 4 in Boston. He faces eight counts, including a charge of attempting to murder the 197 passengers and crew members on the flight.