Flying out of Seattle? TSA now letting you keep your shoes on through security

The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) confirmed that it will now allow passengers to keep their footwear on as they go through security checkpoints.

This change is happening at select airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac), Perry Cooper, the senior media relations manager for the Port of Seattle, told KIRO Newsradio.

“One of the least favorite things about going through security at the airport, I think for a lot of us, is when you have to take off your shoes if you’re not TSA PreCheck,” KIRO host Ursula Reutin said. “Now, for the first time in nearly 20 years, TSA is finally going to let regular, non-TSA PreCheck folks keep their shoes on going through airport security.”

Shoe removal has been part of the airport experience since 2006 due to a “continuing threat” of explosives within shoes. Five years earlier, Richard Reid tried to ignite a homemade shoe bomb on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. He struggled to light a fuse attached to his shoes, according to the FBI, that had 10 ounces of explosive material inside.

“While we’re here, Hey TSA, can we do one more thing? Can we stop that dumb rule of 3.5 ounces?” KIRO host Gee Scott said. “Can we stop that? Please? Can we just get eight ounces? Stop this 3.5 because some folks got perfumes and colognes that might be above that.”

Gee’s latest (and last) TSA horror story

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had to take my shoes off because your boy had TSA PreCheck for a long time,” Gee said. “But, just recently, an organization paid for me to fly out to do their event, and I didn’t pay attention. I just got to the airport. I go to the TSA PreCheck line, and they’re like, ‘Oh, sorry, you don’t have TSA PreCheck.’ So I had to wait in the long line and take my shoes off. Here’s the problem: Your boy slipped on some shoes with no socks on that day. I’m barefoot walking on that floor. Just nasty, and full disclosure, y’all know I paint my toenails.”

“No, not everybody knows that,” Ursula said with a laugh.

“It’s The Gee and Ursula Show, y’all. We family,” Gee said. “I paint my toenails black. And I’m very confident in my toes. If you think a certain thing way about me because I got black toenails by way of polish, then I don’t know what to say. But that was a disaster, so the fact that nobody has to go through that anymore, that’s great.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.