Shoe bomb threat by Qatari diplomat on US flight

Federal Air Marshalls in the United States were yesterday called on to subdue a diplomat from Qatar amid fears of a terrorist threat. The authorities were involved after an onboard disturbance during a Washington to Denver flight which led to suggestions that the diplomat may have been attempting to detonate a bomb in his shoe.

The US media immediately ran with the story, although it is not yet clear if the incident represented a real terror situation of if the Qatari man may have in fact been joking. The plane remained unharmed and there were no reports of any fires. An inspection of the suspect’s shoes also found no evidence of explosives according to the FBI.

The man was identified by US media as being the third secretary of the Qatari Embassy and also a vice-consul by the name of Mohammed al-Modadi. He sent the Marshalls team into overdrive after proclaiming that he was about to light his shoes on fire.

The media reported the incident widely as a potential “shoe bomb” threat, but soon after the incident an official told reporters that there may have been a significant misunderstanding. The same official also reportedly claimed that the diplomat’s comments were possibly sarcastic, that he may have been making an ill-timed joke as he was emerging from the plane’s toilet.

The joke was a reference to an incident in December when a Nigerian man failed to detonate explosives aboard a Detroit-bound flight, leading to increased security measures across the globe for all US-bound flights. So seriously are such threats now taken that two fighter jets were scrambled as a precaution.