"Terrorism fears spark lines of barefoot passengers at China airports"

Thursday, May 23, 2002

Terrorism fears spark lines of barefoot passengers at China airports
Agence France Presse


SHANGHAI, (AFP) - Angry lines of unshod passengers are building up at
airports around China as security staff ask them to take off their shoes
to be checked for weapons due to terrorism fears sparked by an air crash
this month.

The new security measures are slowing check-ins around the country,
leaving many unable to board their planes, officials and reports said
Thursday.

It follows the May 8 crash of a China Northern Airlines plane off the
northeastern city of Dalian, which killed 112 people.

Investigators have yet to discover why the MD-82 jet plunged into the
sea following a fire in the cabin, but have not ruled out terrorism.

"After the air crash near Dalian, we strengthened our security check
examinations by asking passengers to take off shoes," said a woman in
the security department of Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport.

Airports in the southern city of Shenzhen and northwestern city of
Xianyang also began similar measures, prompting long delays and anger
from passengers, the Xinmin Evening news reported.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)
confirmed that the new guideline had been adopted by the CAAC, but added
that it was not compulsory.

"Airports can carry out the new measure under the circumstances they see
fit," he told AFP.

There was a further air safety alert on May 19 when a woman at southwest
China's Chengdu Shuangliu Airport was caught trying to board a flight
with a fruit knife in her shoe.

She was identified by her stumbling gait and arrested despite her
assertions that she only took the knife aboard because she had used it
for years and was loath to part with it.


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