For the first time in nearly 20 years, Americans will get to bypass one of the most roundly disliked airport security measures.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Tuesday that the Transportation Security Administration will no longer require passengers to remove their shoes while being checked for weapons, drugs, and other contraband.
“Our security technology has changed dramatically,” Noem said during a press conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. “It’s evolved. TSA has changed. We have a multilayered, whole-of-government approach now to security and to the environment that people anticipate and experience when they come into an airport that has been honed and it’s been hardened.”
The change went into effect immediately at all U.S. airports.
The TSA implemented its shoe removal rule in 2006, in part due to a failed shoe bombing plotted by British national Richard Reid. In December 2001, only three months after the 9/11 attacks, Reid attempted to ignite explosives concealed within his shoes while on an American flight from Paris to Miami. The explosives failed to detonate, and several passengers subdued and restrained Reid until the flight could land in Boston.
Reid later pleaded guilty to eight federal criminal charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted homicide, and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 110 years in prison with no possibility of parole.
Shoe removal had been unpopular with much of the flying public since its implementation, and the TSA was aware of it. Last year, the agency released a video advertisement for its PreCheck service featuring customers who all gave just one reason for joining the program: they didn’t have to remove their shoes at the airport anymore.
