BBC NEWS | Americas | Shoe alert shuts New York airport

New York’s LaGuardia airport was evacuated and flights were halted for about two hours after a man’s shoe set off a false alarm during screening.

A search was launched for the man after he was allowed to pass through security despite setting off the alarm for explosives residue.

Oh, so that’s what it was. The really troubling thing is that after he was selected for secondary screening, he put his shoes on and walked away. Somebody screwed up, royally, by not keeping an eye on him the whole time, until he’d been conclusively cleared.

No wonder Delta’s customer service agent was so cagey when I called yesterday to ask about the rumored security breach (duh, Ginny, not “breech”). If the guy had really been a shoe bomber, ten kinds of hell would have broken loose.