TSA seeks to reassure public that X-rays of shoes detect weapons, explosive devices

WASHINGTON — The government sought to assure airline travelers Tuesday that X-raying shoes at security checkpoints was a reliable way of detecting weapons and explosive devices.

"Screening shoes by X-ray is an effective way of identifying any anomaly, including explosives," said Kip Hawley, Transportation Security Administration chief, at a news conference at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington.

Under new orders this week, all airline passengers must put their shoes through X-ray machines at checkpoints.

But according to a Homeland Security report on aviation screening obtained by The Associated Press, the machines don't help screeners find a specific liquid or gel that can be used as a bomb.

At the news conference, Hawley said the machines can detect improvised explosive devices, which he said were "the No. 1 threat that we guard against."

He displayed a mock-up of shoes worn by Richard Reid — arrested aboard a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 when he tried to ignite an explosive device hidden in his shoe — and shoes with no explosive device.

"You can see very clearly the difference between a shoe with an explosive and one without," Hawley said.

The new screening procedures were put in place after British police last week broke up a terrorist plot to assemble and detonate bombs aboard as many as 10 airliners crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Britain to the U.S.

Among the new procedures are a ban on liquids and gels in airline passenger cabins, more hand searches of carryon luggage, and random double screening of passengers at boarding gates.

On Sunday, the TSA made it mandatory for shoes to be run through X-ray machines as passengers go through metal detectors. They were begun in late 2001, after the Reid's arrest. The shoe scans have been optional for several years.

In its April 2005 report, "Systems Engineering Study of Civil Aviation Security — Phase I," the Homeland Security Department concluded that images on X-ray machines don't provide the information necessary to detect explosives.

Machines used at most airports to scan hand-held luggage, purses, briefcases and shoes have not been upgraded to detect explosives since the report was issued.

TSA contends, however, that screening shoes is an important security strategy for detecting concealed weapons or tampering.