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.
It’s notable that this happened ONE TIME EVER IN ALL OF HISTORY and suddenly hundreds of millions needs to suffer for security theater.
I know that Israel is not exactly in moral good graces right now, but I was always impressed by their airport security’s efficiency.
They had a long weaving line where they’d walk sniffing dogs and have spotters to pull people out for in-depth screening. If you weren’t pulled out you just went through a metal detector and bags went in a basic x-ray.
Very quick moving lines and none of theatrical humiliation of removing shoes and belts.
Its primarily done via racial profiling. And given all weve learned recently about their attitudes toward brown people, it makes me question how much of the data theyve released is actually accurate, and not just “This guy was definitely going to blow up a plane, and we know this because hes from Gaza and lives next door to a guy capable of making a bomb”.
They also do it by religion apparently. There was a video on Youtube of a Canadian Jewish girl who turned Muslim that recounts the difference of how it went at the airport. Apparently they put a sticker on your passport and if the number starts with a 6 you get extra scrutiny.
One of the key reasons for Israeli airport security efficiency is racial profiling though (see the Ben Gurion airport section of This page for details).
Lived in Latin America for years. Pretty much the same there. Just be patient and go through line and you’re good.
I don’t think you need to take off your shoes in Europe airports.
Interestingly, most airports in Europe do not routinely make people take their shoes off. The way the TSA sticks to that policy implies they should have planes dropping out of the sky on a weekly basis.
Swede here, I have only had to remove my shoes once when going through security, it was an airport in the UK, and I was randomly selected (I look like a Swede)
In uk airports I only take them off if they’re particularly metallic and I think they’ll trigger the metal detector
And yet we can keep our underwear on…
Don’t give TSA any ideas. They’re not all idiots working for a Federal jobs program; some of them are idiots with power in a Federal jobs program.
That guy was a dumbass. I’d be surprised if it did more than bust up his feet.
There was also Philippines Airlines 434 where components for a bomb were hidden in the culprit’s shoes and then assembled on the plane. The plane managed to land safely, but one passenger was killed by the explosion and a number of others were injured.
Removed by mod
The answer to your unspoken question is money.
Decades of checking shoes is decades of money in the hands of the few.
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.
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.
That was racism you experienced there.
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.
Also was seemingly an idiot.
Idiot or just an idiotic dedication to their job, in Korea the two can be hard to delineate a lot of the time.
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 🤷♂️
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 podcast You’re Wrong About just did an episode on this: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/14538729-the-shoe-bomber-with-miles-klee
Moral of the story: if you want something to reliably blow up, use an e-match
You take your shoes off? I only got called out because i left my Headphones in my backpack.
Most Airport security is theater anyways.No, we take our shoes off for security theater.
You want actual security? Have trained agents who observe all the people. Instead, we have shlubs sitting by monitors that they don’t watch.
I traveled recently and was surprised to find I had inadvertently got a pocket knife through security. Apparently forgot to take it out of my bag. TSA did not catch it.
They caught a credit card knife I had left in my wallet forgotten about and made me throw it out this was years ago and I have yet to get another credit card knife because it was a gift lol
Credit card… knife?
Yeah it’s a small flat knife like a pocketknife like small flat swiss army but with only a knife attachment and it unfolds like oragami into a thin rectangle meant to fit in wallets’ card flaps or wherever else cards go but when using it you fold it up into a small knife blade and a handle for it I mean it’s like for tiny things like cutting packages open or whatever people use small swiss army knives for. If you seriously tried to use it even remotely violently or in a threatening manner at most you will give someone a small cut like a gnarly papercut and more likely you’d just be thrown in a loony bin lol but TSA has its rules God forbid I have that on me on the flight along with a large shampoo bottle and liquids brought from home that’s straight to jail
That’s pretty cool, had no idea that existed!
