Infants on "No Fly" list?

[Nelson Atwell]

See the article at the link below.



Apparently, infants are now considered potential terrorists. Give me a break! What are they going to do? Poop on the other passengers? :lol:

 

[Frank Marano]

better safe then sorry.....

 

[Kevin Palmer]

The main reason this has become an issue has to do with parents not being able to prove the infant is who the infant is.



Let me explain....



If a person on a no fly list buys a ticket as a general rule he can not fly. However, you can buy tickets from a multiple of sites and never need identity to do so. Expedia.come, CheapTickets.com etc etc. The issue is once you get to the airport to check in, your name MAY be flagged depending on how good the system is going for that day.



So lets say Usama Bin Lauden buys a ticket via his personal computer. He makes arrangements with another person to swap tickets. In many cases you can walk right through security with someone else's ticket. Especially if it is busy or if your picture is even remotely close to the issued ticket. So the bad guy walks through fairly easily.



In the mean time, and at the same relative time, (intentionally done this way to create an issue at another security check point, helps take away from the bad guys check point), the person that traded tickets gets stopped. Eventually he/she will be able to get cleared but not until they can prove their identify via 3 forms of ID. Not too many people carry three forms of ID. And in this case they intentionally carry on a single form of ID. It takes time to straighten it out. Long enough normally that the bad guys is through security and in the air...



So it really has nothing to do with the infant so to speak. In a fair amount of cases the other person is nothing but a tool.



There has also been honest cases where names simply match up. In these cases it is treated the same as TSA does not know if it is a rouse, a test or an honest mistake.



I have seen this done. We follow cases like this all to often.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

That explanation makes no sense. If the parents have valid ID and are not on the list, then the infant would pose no risk, even if its name is on the list. Holding the baby creates the distraction that you describe above, so that the bad guys have a better chance of getting through. :blink:



I think the "tools" are the ones that are stupid enough to think a baby is a terorrist. :angry:

 

[Kevin Palmer]

It has nothing to do with the baby. It has to do with the name. If you could carry a dog, stool, chair, law mower etc etc that had a formal name and it was on the list it would be the same issue. Unless you can prove positive identification it will be as I described above.



If your name is not on the list they generally will accept a single form of ID for minors and your word saying the minor is who he/she is. It becomes an issue if the name is on the list.

 

[Gypsy me]

Pretty soon, we'll all have a tattooed number assigned and everyone will have to have passports to fly in the US. Maybe we can get family group plans? (I'm kidding sort of, but, nothing surprises me any more)



Here's a thought, maybe the "list" needs to be revised WITH pictures and ages of the people who are actually ON the list? Easier to get an adult id than a childs. Wow sounds simple huh?

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Isn't that the final goal?

To have a tatoo on your forehead or right hand?

 

[Darrel Chaney01]

A little off that subject but close enough. I had a friend that about six years ago was flying on his vacation. He happened to see one of his friends that he had not seen in years at the airport. So he decided to yell to him, by the way his first name was Jack. So he yelled "HI Jack!" He told me it took him 3 hours to get it all straight. Then he said to me the next time he not saying anything to him unless he says something first. And this was before 9/11!

 

[Conrad AlbertoJr]

TSA is a joke. I use to work for LAX airport operations and i myself am a pilot. The people that work TSA are high school dropouts that usually do enough work to not get fired. Now i know there are good TSA employees out there, but most of my experiences with them have all been negative. If a TSA official thinks a 1 year old girl cant fly because her name resembles a terrorist's on the no fly list, then they really need to learn some common sense.



There was actually a case where the FBI was trying to deport a known terrorist back to Scotland. He was in handcuffs, escorted by two fbi agents and 2 federal marshals. The TSA would not let them fly because he was on the no fly-list.

 

[Gypsy me]

:lol: I hope not Fer! Darrel, I can not blame him!

Conrad, many do not feel common sense is a necessity, it makes more sense to keep them in the US :lol:

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Just profile already. We have a limited amount of time and resource we can put to screening passengers. All those males with Arab names between 17 and 40 get looked at closely, the rest get "moved along."



TJR

 

[Kerry Matthews]

I don't like tattoos, so I don't want one on my arm OR my forehead!!!

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Its a good thing that TSA isn't running the Department of Justice. Our infants would all be in danger of being put in jail because of mistaken identity. :lol:

 

[David B]

I believe we do need to use profiling (including racial) as one of the prevention methods to truly make the system safer at the current time. Since the main threat now is from those of arabic type decent this can be an effective tool.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Pick out the birthplace of these six men just by their appearance:



1

[Broken External Image]:



2

3

4

5

[Broken External Image]:



6

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Nelson, Profile them all, because none of them look like me! ;-)



TJR

 

[Travis Munday]

Apparently, I'm a 'flagged' person...I get the extra screening in the airports. It really isn't that bad, other then taking more time then it should in the smaller airports, espically if you're behind schedule. It didn't bother me to go through it, and I'm not sure why it'd bother anyone, unless they have a "better than thou" type attitude, in which case a little searching and prodding is good for them.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

I get flagged quite a bit too. Because:



a) I often buy tickets only a couple of days in advance



b) Sometimes I buy only one way



c) I look like Joe Average American (an easy, no-fuss person to help hit their hourly search quota...unlike the young, militant not-white guy that might get all bent if he gets picked).



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

1. USA

2. USA

3. Italy

4. USA

5. No clue. I want to say USA because it has to be a trick question. I am also thinking the UK since the website is from the UK, but he does look like he is of Arab desent.

6. Spain





Tom

 

[Nelson Atwell]

1. Lebanon

2. Lebanon

3. Italy

4. USA

5. Italy

6. Spain