For a Fee, Fliers Won’t Shed Shoes

By Thomas Frank

A new machine will allow some air travelers to avoid a post-9/11 hassle starting today — taking off shoes at a checkpoint.

Orlando International starts using the ShoeScanner this morning but only for people who pay an annual fee and pass a background check. Those fee-paying travelers will soon find the machines at Indianapolis, San Jose and Cincinnati airports and in Terminal 7 at New York’s Kennedy International.

The ShoeScanner detects explosives in shoes when people stand on its platform for 20 to 25 seconds, allowing the machine to shoot radio waves at footwear to provide a molecular peek inside.

This is “going to make it less of a hassle for passengers,” said Indianapolis airport security director Reggie Baumgardner.

Travelers in the USA have been largely required to remove their shoes at checkpoints since December 2001, when al-Qaeda recruit Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives in his sneakers.

ShoeScanners will be available only to people who join the Registered Traveler program, which allows faster security lines for passengers paying about $100 a year. The Transportation Security Administration approved ShoeScanners only for Registered Traveler and has no plans to expand it to regular checkpoints because of cost and time concerns.

The ShoeScanner’s $200,000 per unit cost is being paid by Verified Identity Pass, a Manhattan company that several airports have hired to run Registered Traveler.

“This (machine) is what some airports have been waiting for,” said Orlando security director Brigitte Goersch. Orlando runs a Registered Traveler program with 30,000 enrollees.

Tim Anderson, deputy operations director at Minneapolis-St. Paul International, said the ShoeScanner “is just a marginal improvement” that won’t propel the airport to start Registered Traveler.

The machine is made by GE Security. Airport consultant Rich Roth said it’s not infallible. Scanners may miss plastic knives or other non-explosives, he said, adding, “It would be far safer if we made everyone take their shoes off.” (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.