Monday, August 4, 2008

LAX to be test site for shoe-scanning machines

Los Angeles International Airport soon will test a pair of machines that let passengers keep their shoes on at security checkpoints.

The machines, made by L-3 Communications, resemble a large turnstile and will scan shoes for explosives as air travelers pass through them.

Dwayne Baird, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, says data collected will help determine whether the scanners could be used at airports nationwide.

Aviation consultant Jack Keady says the results were inconsistent when similar shoe-scanning machines were tested last summer at Orlando International Airport.

Federal authorities have required airline passengers to remove their shoes for inspection since "shoe bomber" Richard Reid failed to detonate a bomb in his sneakers on a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

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