On December 22, 2001—just months after the 9/11 attacks—Richard Reid boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami with homemade bombs hidden in his shoes.
During the flight, Reid tried to detonate his shoes, but he struggled to light the fuse. Crew members and passengers noticed and restrained him.
The plane diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, and Massachusetts State Police officers took Reid into custody. Reid told FBI agents that he made the shoes himself.
This is the pair of shoes [Richard] Reid—also known as the “shoe bomber”—tried to detonate. FBI bomb techs determined that the shoes contained about 10 ounces of explosive material.
I haven’t taken my shoes off in like 2 years and 8 flights. This isn’t even a thing anymore in most airports.
It’s all dependent on the TSA agents. They’re idiots with power to their heads. They make up rules on the spot and you can’t do shit about it.
I fly just about every month to different locations and it’s completely random what you need to take off and take out of your bag.
So true! In spite of this level of control, when tested by the fed I think something like 48 or 49 out of 50 “bombs” (obviously not real bombs) made it through TSA security checks.
And they will act personally offended if you don’t know automatically what they want.
I fly like 20 times a year and I think the US airports I frequent still require it? I have precheck and whatever but I occasionally hear TSA saying not to remove shoes when things are backed up.
Which is very funny to me. We all know it’s pointless, and they skip it when the lines are too long. Hopefully you’re right and it’s truly being phased out
I mean there are a ton of airports, I believe You’ve run into it. I just didn’t think it really was around all that much. ATL, PWM, DUL haven’t had me take them off in forever 🤷♂️
This depends on state. In Miami, they literally SCREAMED at me when I bent down to take my shoes off, and in Seattle, they were completely and utterly (like personally) offended that I didn’t automatically take them off.
I almost always have to take off my shoes, even when others do not. I’m not sure, but I think if your feet are bigger than the yellow footprint marks they have you stand on, it increases the likelihood of them searching your shoes.
Just last year in Seoul I had a security guy chase me down like 5min after getting through security. He had me take off my shoes and then he just wacked them on the ground a bunch like he was playing drums. I gotta admire the commitment though, don’t think I’d be investigating via ground slam If I thought a shoe contained explosives.
That was racism you experienced there. Also was seemingly an idiot.
I don’t think so, I was in Korea and I’m of Korean descent… I’m not fully Korean, so it’s possible. But I generally just look like a larger than average Korean person.
Idiot or just an idiotic dedication to their job, in Korea the two can be hard to delineate a lot of the time.
The last time I flew was 5 years ago. Even then one of the airports didn’t require me to take off my shoes. Now if only they could get rid of the 3-1-1 rule.
The 3-1-1 rule is way more annoying. I actually don’t mind taking off my shoes, getting ready to travel makes me anxious and that anxiety makes my feet sweat and stink. It’s kind of pleasant to get an excuse to air them out… sorry everybody…