At airport

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Thursday, August 9, a new system to screen airline passengers before they board flights.

This system is designed to allay privacy concerns aired by legislators and other groups about previous proposals to pre-screen passengers.

In previous proposed systems, there were plans to obtain private commercial information, including records on past credit card transactions and travel histories, and use it to predict probable terrorists. Congress enacted laws to block these proposals. The new system will not collect commercial data and will not calculate risk score or predict probable behavior.

The revised program has been christened Secure Flight, which would help to prevent high-risk passengers from boarding airplanes while singling out suspicious individuals for extra security precautions.

When people make a reservation (in person, by phone, or online), airlines will be required to ask for the names of passengers and flight itinerary; the passengers should then be asked if they are willing to provide information about their address, gender, and birth date, but passengers may refuse to comply.

It will help, though, to provide the optional information. It will make screening of passenger names faster. These added data help authorities make further verifications, and therefore will minimize errors in positive matches of names with those on watch lists. The existing systems have blocked several members of Congress and infants from getting on flights because their names registered positive matches.

After getting the information, the airline transmits it by secure electronic means to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) 3 days (72 hours) before takeoff, although names will continue to be screened until the plane is about to leave.

A similar system will be utilized for international flights bound for U.S. destinations. The government will require airlines to provide passenger information to U.S. Customs officials at least a half-hour before the plane departs. The current procedure allows name screening until shortly before takeoff. The 30-minute period will allow earlier vetting and avoid embarrassing — and costly — situations where airliners are diverted or ordered to turn around because suspicious passengers have been found listed on their flight manifest.

The TSA is targeting to have the program fully running by 2008. Before then, the agency will have a test period using screen data provided by airlines that agree to participate in the trials. The present system has airlines doing the checking against the security lists before the plane takes off. The proposed system will have TSA taking over the responsibility for checking the names, in compliance with orders of Congress.

During the test period of Secure Flight this fall, the public is invited to give comments and feedback. Make sure you do.