Terror watch-list causes problems for travelers
- posted: 27 Nov. 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
Lists of potential terrorists’ names are leaving passengers empty-handed when they attempt to get boarding passes online or at the airport kiosk. Inconvenienced and innocent passengers want their names off the list.
John Thompson, of the BYU-Idaho Communication Department, discovered his name on the terror-watch list last year when he was denied an online boarding pass the night before his flight.
“I had to go to the check-in counter in the airport,” he said. “The lady there told me I was on the list.”
Thompson’s name was on the “selectee” list, a list with the names of possible terrorists, because he shares a name with someone who has threatened the airlines or could cause problems and distress. In order to be cleared for a flight, he has to present identification with his middle initial or birth date in order to be cleared for the flight.
Those who pose threats to or have threatened aviation safety are placed on the “No Fly” list, and are not allowed to fly at all.
“If we know the specific individual, we typically will have his middle initial and birth date,” said Nico Melendez, Transportation Security Administration spokesperson.
In that case, it’s easy to gain clearance for those on the selectee list.
However, Melendez says the watch list is not a fix-all, because each airline uses different software. Ultimately, a person’s name could appear on the list for one company, while he or she will be cleared for flying through another airline’s lists.
Furthermore, a person’s name might not appear the same way on another airline’s list.
While showing identification may clear up some problems, it doesn’t stop the inconvenience for Thompson or any other traveler sharing a threat-poser’s name. Every time they travel, they will need to report first to the ticket office to obtain boarding passes.
“We believe that the fix-all is revolutionizing the passenger screening program,” Melendez said.
The terror-watch program would be much less complicated if new technology were used and TSA were to run and check the program, rather than every individual airline, he said.
If this technology were in place, TSA would request more information from passengers, like a middle initial or a birth date, when the passenger books a flight. Then people like Thompson can get their boarding passes online.
For now, the only solution is for a passenger to request his or her name be taken off the list through the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, a process that takes 30 to 45 days.
Thompson said he hasn’t tried removing his name from the list.
“If I flew once a week or every month, that would be different,” he said.
He looks at it as a minor inconvenience every time he flies. 
