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.
Not all the time but you may be asked to. Had it happen a few times over the years.