Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
TSA considering allowing passengers to keep shoes on
Remember the time when you wore your heaviest pair of shoes on the airplane to leave as much space as possible in your baggage? Then came increased airport security and increased security checks, and removing your shoes meant wearing something that would come off easily; there's nothing worse than holding up the security check line because you have to untie your hiking boots. It's true; the removal of shoes is not the TSA's most popular policy (then again, do they have a popular one???) On the TSA's blog removing shoes is even compared with "root canals and doing your taxes." That's why the TSA is currently testing some new shoe scanners in LAX.
During the trial period passengers will still be required to remove their shoes once they get to the magnetometer. But if all goes well, this might be the end of shoe removal, allowing you once again to wear whatever footwear -- no matter how large and obnoxious to take off -- on your next flight, hassle free.
[Via Jaunted]
Filed under: North America, United States, Airports, News, Consumer Activism
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Emma Leigh Jul 31st 2008 4:36PM
The image (of the shoes) shown on the link appears to be an x-ray.
Are there going to be lines for people to opt out of the device (i.e. pregnant women or people with suppressed immune systems or people who don't like being radiated?)
I can't figure out if it will speed up or slow down checkpoint. I understand the on/off for the WTMD for now - their still testing it. Passengers will still have to have their carryon and coats, etc. checked so it seems like it will be another hurdle the passenger has to cross. Show ticket and ID, put junk on xray feeder, proceed to shoe checker, then go through WTMD then collect junk and go.
What happens if the shoe checker alerts? Do they go to a patdown there? What if the WTMD alerts? Do they have to take off their shoes have have them double checked? Some shoes have metal shanks in them that will make the WTMD alert. That, along with Reid, was a reason shoes had to be checked - they were slowing down the people getting through the WTMD.
GB Jul 30th 2009 1:30PM
One crazy guy with a dud "shoe bomb" and the traveling public pays for it endlessly. Why is the shoe policy still in place? It is inefficient, unsanitary, annoying, and a complete waste of time. The same goes for the 3oz liquid in a Ziploc. What's the point? How does that keep the public safer? It's all just Bush-era stupidity.