LAS VEGAS: Shoe bombs are still a threat so for now US air travelers will have to continue to take their shoes off before airport screenings, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday.
Napolitano said her department has been looking for a technological solution to the shoe problem, drawing applause at a conference of travel and tourism industry leaders.
She quickly added: "We're not there yet, so wear slipons."
The shoe requirement is probably the most hated symbol of the raft of security measures imposed on air travelers after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Industry leaders have complained about a one-size-fits-all approach to aviation security that they say has discouraged travel and is costing billions of dollars in revenues.
"It's a technological problem," said Napolitano.
"Why? Because we know from a risk-based standard that our adversaries have tried before and are always attempting to see what they can get onto a plane that would constitute enough explosive material to blow a plane up," she said.
"That threat has not disappeared, and if anything even the public revelations out of the material seized out of this compound where bin Laden was confirmed that aviation remains a target."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.