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After reshuffling barefoot of about two decades through the airport security lines, American travelers can finally leave their shoes.
The Homeland Security Department (DHS) ended one of the most visible post -9/11 security measures this week, a rule born in 2001 after a failed work of terror, when a British national, Richard Reid tried to ignite the explosives hidden in their sneakers mid -flight.
The terrorist attack attempt was not successful, but it created a new era of screening of the airport, in which millions of travelers will be seen taking out their shoes – so far.
The security policy of about 20-year-old shoe airports has ended by the Trump administration
A conspiracy that changed everything
The roots of the policy went back on December 22, 2001, when Reid later dubbed the “Shu Bomber”, which rode the US Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami.
Hidden plastic explosives and a mekshift detonator in his black high-top sneakers. Reid tried to lighten a fuse with a match mid-flight, but was subdued by passengers and flight crew.
The phenomenon exposed a vulnerability in aviation safety systems, especially their inability to detect non-metal hazards such as PETN, explosives used in reed shoes.
Richard Reid wore a pair of revised high-top sneakers on 22 December 2001, as he boarded the American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami. (FBI)
TSA shows the surprising reason that people can set safety alarm during screening
Jeff Price, an Aviation Security Expert and Professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver said that the types of explosive reed used at that time cannot be detected.
“As far as the removal of the shoe is concerned, I am sure that many people know so far, started back in 2006, when it actually returned in 2001, when Richard Reid tried to fly an airplane with an an airplane,” Price said. “But it was not until 2006 that the policy would be implemented to remove the shoes. And this was really because the technology of that time could not detect the types of explosives he used or who was in use at that time.”
Why took till 2006
Immediately after 9/11 and in the attempt to bombing the failed bombing of the reed, the airport security processes developed rapidly, but the technology lagged behind the threat.
Price said that early metal detectors were “difficult to find out anything at the floor level” and “could never detect explosives.”
Richard Colvin Reid was born on 12 August 1973 in Bromli, South London. He is a British citizen, who exploded explosives hidden in his shoes in December 2001 and attempted a terrorist attack in a commercial aircraft. (Plymouth County Jail)
To remove the shoe, a human work -round became what machines cannot do yet.
“For a long time, the idea was: if we can’t see it, we would shut down it,” Price said, who was former Assistant Security Director at Denver International Airport. “So that long got stuck with us and technologies have changed a lot since a long time.”
How to finally caught
According to the price, there was a change after the widespread adoption of the millimeter wave imaging scanner. Machines are capable of detecting not only metals, but also ceramic, plastic, fluid and explosives, head to foot.
“The new millimeter wave imaging machines that have been deployed at most airports do a big job of detecting explosives, fluids, ceramic, plastic and metal items,” the Price said. “They are from head to toe. They are not without mistake – there is no system. Every system has found false positive, and it is ever going to remember things. Therefore, there is no correct system. The question is that it is quite correct? Or is it enough to deafer at least and hopefully find out the types of items?”
Anthony Brock, an employee of the Transport Safety Administration, performs a full-body scanner in the Lindberg Field of San Diego. (The Associated Press)
Millimeter Wave Technology started the traditional metal detectors in the late 2000s, explaining.
Price said, “The deployment of millimeters waves continued to change the magnetometer by 2023-2024 in all ways.” “They are still running. I think there are about seven to eight hundred.”
What does it mean for passengers
For millions of travelers who have grown up, shoes, compartments and boarding have been used to awaken the passes, the inverter may feel like overdose relief, and it is likely to help in speeding up things.
“I think it will,” the value said about the ability to reduce waiting time. “It is almost indispensable that it takes time to take off your shoes, put back our shoes. We have to sit for most of the time and depend on the kind of shoes you have, it has shoes or dress shoes, they barely move forward. So I think it is essentially intensifying those times.”
Price warned that the facility should never move forward carefully.
“Safety is always about balance. It is about a balance between efficiency and security. We still have got to keep the system running, but we still have to provide a level of security that protects the public as much as possible,” he said. “We will never meet for 100% security, because to do so, we have to quit flight!”
“But we want to reach a point where we have found a high level of detection and preventive, which we do not experience events – or, it’s strange to say, we do not experience enough events that it really starts to affect the system.”
The value suspected that DHS weighs the lack of recent events associated with shoes as part of the decision.
He said, “They are looking for most prohibited objects in people’s pockets, or they are doing their backpack or laptop bags, purses or something like that,” he said. “We are unable to do people’s ankles and further. It can be a factor of this decision.”
TSA hoped to abolish shoes closed policy at several airports across America
Nevertheless, he said that random screening should play an important role in maintaining passengers and TSA vigilance.
“Just to keep people honest,” he said.
And while some critics dismissed the original shoe rule as a “security theater”, indicating the value of the value detention.
“Anyone who is fully dedicated and wants to succeed will probably be able to do so,” he said. “Like if someone wanted to break in your house, they are probably going to be able to do so, no matter how many security measures you deploy.”
“Although the goal is to make that level of condemnation so much that they do not go to your house. That they go somewhere else and try their criminal or terrorist acts. And it is not really the goal of any security system ‘on my watch.” Out of my house. ,
Homeland’s Security Secretary Christie Nom speaks during a news conference, where he announced that most airline passengers will no longer have to remove their shoes at security posts at Reagan National Airport in Washington on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Sheffelbin)
‘Make screening easier’
The TSA replaced a corner on the mandate to remove shoes during security, in which Homeland’s Security Secretary Christie Nom on Tuesday announced an immediate end of the shoe-band requirement.
NoM announced a policy of nearly 20 years at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC at a press conference late on Tuesday night.
He said, “In those 20 years, since that policy was placed, our safety technique has changed dramatically. It has developed. TSA has changed,” he said in the presser. “We have a multi -layered, entire government’s approach to safety and those who guess for the environment and feel that when they come to an airport, which has been honored and it has become rigid.”
He said, “We took a difficult look of how TSA does its business, how it does its screening processes, and what we do to make people safe, but also provide some hospitality.”
A man puts his shoes in a tray for a security check of the airport. (Istock)
According to the TSA press release, the announcement was made in an attempt to make “screening easier for passengers, improve passenger’s satisfaction and reduce waiting time.
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Some passengers may still be subject to the discovery of their shoes “if they put in a different position or require additional layers of screening.”
Nom said that the removal of fluid, coat and belt is also being evaluated, announcing that “the Golden Age of America is here.”
Fox News reached Digital DHS and TSA.
Ashley Dimela of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
