As Flight 63 was flying over the Atlantic Ocean, Richard Reid, an Islamic fundamentalist from the United Kingdom and self-proclaimed al-Qaeda operative, carried shoes that were packed with two types of explosives.

[2] The 6-foot-4-inch-tall (1.93 m) Reid, who weighed 215 pounds (98 kg), was subdued by the flight attendants and other passengers and immobilized by the cabin crew using plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions, and headphone cords.

Authorities later found over 280 grams (10 ounces) of TATP and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) hidden in the hollowed soles of Reid's shoes,[4] which, if detonated, would have blown a significant hole in the aircraft and likely caused it to crash.

[7] He pleaded guilty, and he was convicted, sentenced to three life terms plus 110 years without parole and incarcerated at ADX Florence, a supermax federal prison in Colorado.

He said that fellow Canadian Abderraouf Jdey had been responsible for the flight's destruction, using a shoe bomb similar to that found on Reid several months earlier.

Jabarah was a known colleague of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and said that Reid and Jdey had both been enlisted by the al-Qaeda chief to participate in identical plots.