Oct 26, 2007 5:20 pm US/Central
TSA Issues New Warning About Shoe Bombs
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The government on Friday issued a warning about the possible re-appearance of shoes as terrorist weapons. Screeners now X-ray passengers' shoes at all U.S. airports but, the concern about lapses in security is prompting the new alert.
As CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports, it was an alarming report that brought Illinois' 6th District Rep. Peter Roskam to O'Hare Airport; news that security screeners failed to find roughly 60 percent of hidden bomb materials during Transportation Security Administration tests over the last two years.
"The 2005 and 2006 numbers are completely unsatisfactory," Roskam said.
Roskam's tour follows a fresh FBI alert about the threat of shoe bombs – detonators hidden in the hollowed-out soles of shoes, which weren't being worn when found on board a European bus last month. An alert has already been passed along to TSA screeners.
"We distribute that to all our screening locations to make officers aware of what's out there today," said O'Hare's TSA chief, Kathleen Petrowsky.
Shoes have been used by terrorists before. Richard Reid tried to blow up an American Airlines jet with a show bomb three months after 9/11. But this time, shoes were being used to transport bomb parts to be reassembled later.
"One person carries component A, the next component B, and they meet together past the safety point," explained security expert Mike White.
That's why screeners are no longer focusing on bulky assembled bombs but rather, small components.
"Here's another fuse that can be buried deep inside a piece luggage to give the impression it's part of the luggage framing itself," White said.
Federal officials say O'Hare's failure rate in security tests is a sign that as the security challenge gets tougher, so does the TSA's testing.
"Since that time, we've improved the methodology of the training and testing all our personnel and the system is better than it was," Petrowsky said.
TSA officials also say new screening technology is in the pipeline. State-of-the art X-ray machines that provide three dimensional images of baggage are expected to be installed at O'Hare within the next six to 12 months.
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