Why does TSA screen shoes?

Tag : Italy Shoes

Q: Why weren't passengers asked to remove their shoes when we wentthrough airport security for our flight leaving Milan, Italy, yetwe still need to remove our shoes for security lines each time wefly commercially in the United States?
A: At U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administrationinitiated the voluntary removal of shoes in 2001. As you mayrecall, that was after passengers on a Paris-to-Miami flightoverpowered would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid when he tried todetonate explosives in his shoes (He pleaded guilty and received alife sentence.)
Shoe removal became mandatory in 2006, but the TSA's oversightcovers only the United States. The federal agency can't requirecompliance with its regulations at airports in other countries,says Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the TSA: "Many of the securityprocedures we employ, like the liquid ban, are similar in dozens ofcountries; others, like the shoe screening, are not."
However, overseas airports are required to meet the minimumsecurity standards set by the International Civil AviationOrganization. Melendez says the TSA maintains a "significantpresence around the globe to ensure those standards are met forflights coming into the United States."
The shoe removal policy won't end soon, Melendez says.
"We know the terrorists still have a significant interest in usingdevices hidden in shoes to bring down aircraft," he says. "We stillroutinely find items hidden in shoes and just last year found shoesin Alaska, manipulated to introduce components of an ImprovisedExplosive Devices (IEDs).
"The common theory is that the shoe screening process is based ononly one incident. That is not true."
Apparently, screening is here to stay.