Click to play videoNew Delhi: In the wake of the foiled plot to blow up airliners heading to the US from London, US officials are adding yet another layer of airport security.
The transportation security administration is making x-ray shoe screening mandatory for all passengers. But are shoe x-rays necessary?
A report from the department of homeland security says x-ray machines at US airports cannot detect explosives in shoes, but the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is playing defensive.
"Screening shoes by x-ray is an effective method of identifying any type of anomaly, including explosives," says TSA administrator, Kip Hawley.
TSA officials and outside experts say the x-ray machines are not meant to detect explosives outright.
"What we're looking for in these shoes is anomalies, initially. So initially you're going to pick up something strange or odd or different from the thousands of shoes we see every day, and then we get a closer look."
After an anomaly is found, shoes can be swabbed for traces of explosives, the expert Steve Lancaster, who hopes to sell screening software to the government observed.
"We put wires around the inside-heels of each of my shoes, those came up on the monitor. We put a simulated explosive under the insoles of another shoe. That showed up," he said.
But Lancaster also used a technique he expects terrorists would use, cutting a thin sheet with the same texture as a sheet explosive to fit exactly into the insoles of another pair of shoes, which is enough, he says, to do damage to an airliner.
TSA officials said they could not comment on a test and that they are confident of their x-ray machines and said the screeners, can pick up any anomalies.
According to the officials the x-rays are just one part of a multi-layered system, for explosive-detection.
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