FORT MYERS, Fla. — After nearly two decades of pulling off shoes in the airport security line, the TSA just announced the requirement is getting the boot. Fox 4’s Austin Schargorodski went to Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) to see how travelers are reacting to the change.
Watch to hear what travelers at RSW had to say about the change:
“You’re all set, you can leave your shoes on today,” a TSA officer told passengers Tuesday. TSA gave Schargorodski an up-close look at travelers moving through RSW Tuesday, but this time officers waved them through with shoes on.
Anne Losee says she’s all for it.
“I’m grateful, although I’ve learned to put on the Sketchers so you can get in and out of them quickly,” Losee said while laughing.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says the new policy is designed to get travelers through security quicker. And speed is exactly what Sharon Molnar said she noticed when flying out from Chicago.
“We did not have to take off our shoes. No one in O’Hare Airport. It was very busy and very fast,” Molnar said.
Noem says the “shoes on” policy rollout is nationwide, effective immediately - something Schargorodski saw shortly before the big announcement.
“We are excited with the fact we have the technology now, that we have the multi-layers of screening in place that we’ve built in over the recent several years, to give us the ability to allow our travelers to keep their shoes on,” Noem said.
Juliet Allen said that was the main reason her family signed up for TSA PreCheck.
“I haven’t had to take my shoes off, and whenever I do it’s always a little bit of a nuisance. So I’m excited that other people are not going to have to take their shoes off, I think it will make the lines a lot faster,” Allen said.
Dominick Cocciemiglio isn’t concerned about security because of the high-tech gear in place.
“I mean they’ve got enough other security right now, facial recognition, they know who you are,” Cocciemiglio said.
Secretary Noem says travelers who get flagged for extra screening may still be asked to remove their shoes, but for most people, the shuffle to slip off shoes in the security line is a thing of the past.
So why have we had this policy for almost 20 years? Back in 2001, Richard Reid, who became known as the "Shoe Bomber," tried to use matches to light explosives hidden in his homemade shoes. This happened on a flight from Paris to Miami. The FBI says he was not successful, but the plane diverted to Boston.
"During a preliminary hearing, an FBI agent revealed how dangerous the homemade bomb was," the FBI said. "She said that bomb techs determined that the bomb would have blown a hole in the plane’s fuselage and caused the plane to crash if it had detonated."
Reid was later sentenced to life in prison, but his actions prompted the big policy change, enacting it in 2006.
