by Passengers at the American airports no longer have to remove their shoes to go through security under a new policy that was unveiled on Tuesday, 20 years after the requirement has been introduced.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Name announced the change in the rules of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at a press conference at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington.
Passengers at the American airports are obliged to take shoes off during impressions since 2006, five years after the arrest of “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who had hidden explosives in his shoes on board.
“In those 20 years since that policy was introduced, our security technology has changed dramatically. It has been developed. TSA has changed. We now have a multi -layered government approach,” said Name.
“We are confident that we can continue to offer hospitality to people and for American travelers and for those who visit our country, while retaining the same safety standard for passengers and for our home country,” she added.
Reid, a member of Al-Qaeda, was overwhelmed by other passengers, trying to put a fuse on his shoes in December 2001 on a flight from American Airlines from Paris to Miami.
Reid pleaded to terrorism and other charges and is a lifelong prison sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
TSA said in a statement about the change in the shoe policy that other security measures will remain in force.
“Other aspects of the layered security approach of TSA will still apply during the TSA -Checkpoint process. Passengers still have to make identity verification, secure flight control and other processes,” said it.
Previous attacks – both successful and thwarted – have led to a series of new security measures for airports in recent decades, especially after the attacks of 11 September 2001, in which hijackers flew passenger jets in the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon.
In 2006, the British authorities announced that they had thwarted a terror plot that the aim was to blow several aircraft in the air at the same time as liquid explosives. Since then, heavy limitations have been applicable to liquids and gels, such as toothpaste.
And electronics also arrived for extra screening in an attempt to drop off attacks, with passengers needed to remove laptops from bags, for example.
CL-WD/MD
