WASHINGTON – Travelers will no longer have to remove their shoes before going through security airport checkpoints, the feds said yesterday – ending a rule that started after the arrest of al Qaeda shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Announcing the new policy, the Transportation Security Administration said its security workers are trained “to look for suspicious footwear” based on counter-terrorism intelligence, including any shoe with thick soles, unusual marks, stitches, or metal in them.
Security workers will selectively ask people to take off their shoes, rather than having everyone do it as standard practice.
“If you have thick soles, you might as well take them off because they’re going to be inspected,” a TSA official said.
“There are certain characteristics that shoes exhibit that will need to be inspected,” said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson, refusing to say specifically what the screeners are looking for.
“That information is not available. Unfortunately it’s intelligence-based and we’re not in a position to share it,” Johnson said.
Intelligence officials say al Qaeda terrorists have trained to make bombs out of shoes.
Passengers may still voluntarily take off their shoes and send them through the X-ray scanner with their carry-on items.
And the TSA is encouraging this, saying lines move faster when everyone takes off their shoes and places them on the conveyer belts.
The TSA also warns that if a passenger wearing shoes sets off the metal detector, the passenger will have to go through an even more intrusive secondary search until the item that set off the metal detector is found.
The TSA says some airports have been requiring travelers to remove shoes, while other airports have made it voluntary.
“We must make sure our security process is consistent so air travelers know what to expect at every airport in the country,” TSA chief James Loy said.
In December 2001, passengers disrupted an attempt by British al Qaeda member Richard Reid to light a fuse to his explosive-packed sneakers aboard a transatlantic flight to the United States.
Reid was sentenced to life in prison in February after pleading guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.