The Department of Homeland Security will take over responsibility for checking airline passenger names against government watch lists beginning in January, and will require travelers for the first time to provide their full names, birth date and gender as a condition for boarding commercial flights. Security officials say the additional personal information, which will be given to airlines to forward to the federal agency, will dramatically cut down on cases of mistaken identity, in which people with names similar to those on watch lists are wrongly barred or delayed from flights.
The changes, to be phased in next year, will apply to 21 million daily passengers aboard all domestic flights and international flights to, from, or over the U.S. By transferring the screening duty from the airlines to the federal government, the Secure Flight program marks the Bush administration’s long-delayed fulfillment of a top aviation security priority after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (Washington Post; USA Today; www.AtlantaJournal-Constitution.com; www.OrlandoSentinel.com)
