Originally Posted by PUCCI GALORE
I'm really surprised. I think there is a most definite safety issue for parts of the flight. If there is an emergency and people are scrambling towards exits I would want some form of protection on my fees. If you had to evacuate an aircraft in an emergency you could get a blister from the slide or step in glass or anything else just at the moment that you should be running from the aircraft...
I would have agreed with your logic, but I was in a crash landing once where the landing gear was stuck in the up position and before impact the FAs instructed the PAXs to move to the front and back of the cabin and to remove all shoes.
I later learned that the apparent reasoning behind the removal of the shoes was that the impact of the landing could easily force the heel of the shoe through your foot and that there was also a real risk that shoes would rip the evacuation slides unlike barefeet or socks.
Shoeless, everyone survived and no slides were ripped.