The Department of Homeland Security
this week said it completely has assumed from all U.S. airlines watchlist-matching
responsibilities for domestic and international passengers as part of the Secure
Flight program. The next step of the passenger prescreening system is for DHS to
assume by year-end the watchlist matching for passengers flying international airlines
to and from the U.S.
DHS this week began checking
100 percent of international passenger names against terrorist watchlists for U.S.
carriers—a function that previously had been handled by airlines, but under the
new program falls to the government—after hitting the 100 percent mark for all domestic
flights earlier this month.
"U.S. airlines account for
more than 90 percent of all travel to, from, and within the United States,"
DHS said in a statement. "With this achievement, Secure Flight will now cover
all passengers aboard those flights."
DHS said the new program would
reduce the number of misidentified passengers that occurred under the predecessor
program, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, since Secure Flight
requires passengers to submit more biographic data to bounce against watchlists,
including date of birth and gender. Under CAPPS, which based its watchlist matching
on name only, passengers could be flagged for further security review at the airport
if their name closely matched one on the watchlist. With the new data elements,
DHS said it has more parameters to determine if a passenger is truly on a watchlist,
or just has some coincidental similarities to people considered threats to aviation
security.
"Secure Flight fulfills
a key recommendation of the of the 9/11 Commission Report, enabling TSA to screen
passengers directly against government watchlists using passenger name, date of
birth and gender before a boarding pass is issued," said DHS secretary Janet
Napolitano. "This achievement significantly enhances one of our many layers
of security—coordinated with our partners in the airline industry and governments
around the world—that we leverage to protect the traveling public against threats
of terrorism."