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May 17, 2005
Shoo, No-Fly
Bangor International Airport must have mixed feelings about all its unscheduled traffic these days. On the one hand, they've got the extra landing fees and food court sales. On the other hand, if a bona fide terrorist does make his way into U.S. airspace, there's a solid chance this is where he's going to land.
Thankfully, today's diversion of a Boston-bound Alitalia flight (due to the similarity of a passenger's name to one on the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list) appears to have been a false alarm. Not only is that happy news, but so is the fact that the TSA is making these connections before the individuals in question reach their destinations. Indeed, this is the second time in a week we've made the connection in time to burden Bangor with such a flight.
The bad news is the quizzical fact that these name comparisons aren't being made and duly acted upon before departure. Surely many more individuals that we never hear about are stopped and questioned before boarding, as a response to more timely realization of potential problems. Still, an analysis as simple as determining inclusion of a name (or a close variant) on a list of no-fly names ought by now to be a rapid, universally required pre-departure procedure for any flight intending to enter U.S. airspace.
Foreign-based airlines complain that such procedures are time-consuming and expensive. Set aside for a moment the comparison of such burdens to the magnitude of the potential resulting threat. The financial, operational, and PR headaches of even these occasional flight diversions must be plenty unpleasant for the airlines involved.
If we continue to face habitually offending airlines, despite their having endured one or two such detours, maybe we ought to urge Bangor International to assess a sufficiently punitive, supplemental "unscheduled commercial landing fee" to allow for a more compelling cost-benefit analysis.
Posted by Suitably Flip at May 17, 2005 01:28 PM
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