A passenger aboard Aeromexico Flight 006 from Paris to Mexico City was detained in Canada on Monday 31st May, after it was discovered that they were on the United States no-fly list. An unscheduled stop was made in Montreal at 1.25pm local time and the authorities there detained the person.
All passengers were evacuated from the aircraft whilst checks were made and procedures completed. The flight resumed at 9.20pm CDT arriving in Mexico City without incident. Aeromexico wished to thank everyone involved for their cooperation.
The US no-fly list is maintained by Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which is administered by the FBI, U.S. Department of Justice, in cooperation with the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State and Treasury, and the Central Intelligence Agency, who conduct research and attempt to keep the list accurate and up-to-date.
Many of those detained as a result of the no-fly list have been misidentified. One of the reasons put forward for not publishing the no-fly list is that it would alert terrorists to their being monitored.
Airlines are not privy to the full information on individuals contained on the no-fly list. It is therefore no surprising that many mismatches are made. There are many stories of law-abiding individuals having long delays at airports and having to undertake a long bureaucratic process to have their identity disassociated from that of the “terrorist”.
It seems that the current system of matching names and dates of birth is proving ineffective and disproportionately disruptive. Given the extent of intelligence which must be gathered in order to place an individual on the no-fly list, it seems surprising that authorities are unable to better target those individuals, instead relying on basic information handed to commercial airlines.
The current US aviation threat level is “high” or orange according to the Department of Homeland Security. Those who have been wrongly delayed or refused entry or to the US are encouraged to seek redress through DHS TRIP at http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/gc_1169676919316.shtm.
