TSA Continues Search for Effective Shoe Scanner

Travelers will have to continue taking off their shoes at airport security checkpoints for the foreseeable future. The Transportation Security Administration has rejected four different shoe-scanning systems the agency has been evaluating at airports because they each failed to adequately detect explosives and metal weapons. Among them is a type of scanner already in use at airports in 18 foreign countries, which can detect metal but not explosives. Not all hope is lost, however: The agency awarded $1.4 million to a subsidiary of French defense contractor Safran, which is developing a scanner that will be tested later this year. U.S. Travel Association reports that surveys show the requirement to remove shoes—in place since a failed plot to detonate explosives on a Miami-bound flight in 2001—is the biggest source of frustration for passengers, viewed more negatively than pat-downs or body scans. nytimes.com