It’s fine to get a chuckle over the inconveniences that Sen. Ted Kennedy suffered in flying once the same name as his got onto the no-fly list … as long as it drives intelligent change. Which, given the political climate, seems unlikely.
Between March 1 and April 6, airline agents tried to block Mr. Kennedy from boarding airplanes on five occasions because his name resembled an alias used by a suspected terrorist who had been barred from flying on airlines in the United States, his aides and government officials said.
Instead of acknowledging the craggy-faced, silver-haired septuagenarian as the Congressional leader whose face has flashed across the nation’s television sets for decades, the airline agents acted as if they had stumbled across a fanatic who might blow up an American airplane. Mr. Kennedy said they refused to give him his ticket.
Right. Because we want ticket agents to be persuadable to abandon procedures just because they think they know someone, or because they think someone’s important enough to make an exception.
In reality, Teddy did get his tickets.
In Mr. Kennedy’s case, airline supervisors ultimately overruled the ticket agents in each instance and allowed him to board the plane. But it took several weeks for the Department of Homeland Security to clear the matter up altogether, the senator’s aides said.
Just days after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called Mr. Kennedy in early April to apologize and to promise that the problems would be resolved, another airline agent tried to stop Mr. Kennedy from boarding a plane yet again. The alias used by the suspected terrorist on the watch list was Edward Kennedy, said David Smith, a spokesman for the senator.
That’s because (wait for it) there’s a suspected terrorist out there using the alias of “Edward Kennedy.”
Since the airlines don’t have the ability to tie their commercial ticket data (e.g., credit card information and so forth) with the TSA’s databases, anyone with the name “Edward Kennedy” with reservations during that period would have faced the same issue.
Which, assuming it’s the same as my own “no-fly list” experience, meant that he would have to give them some ID, a supervisor would need to call the TSA, and confirm manually that the name and address and DOB did not match that of the suspected terrorist. Gads.
Tom Ridge didn’t call me to apologize.
And, of course, just because there’s at least one “innocent” Edward Kennedy doesn’t mean that the suspect Edward Kennedy should get to fly without his name raising a flag — and I hope that the fact the problem has been resolved is because either …
- … the senator’s aides, like I will from now on, have reservations being made with the senator’s middle name.
- … the suspect “Edward Kennedy” has been either apprehended or cleared.
I certainly hope that someone didn’t actually just clear “Edward Kennedy” so that the senator would stop complaining.
At the hearing, Mr. Kennedy wondered how ordinary citizens could navigate the tangled bureaucracy if a senator had so much trouble. “How are they going to be able to get to be treated fairly and not have their rights abused?” he asked.
I don’t know — but I didn’t feel particularly “unfairly” treated, nor were my “rights abused.” It was just a pain in the ass.
I guess the question is that if TSA or other law enforcement knows of a potential threat from someone using the alias “Edward Kennedy,” what would the senator suggest they do about it to keep the person off a plane? What information should they share with the airlines, which of that information should be available to a ticket agent at the counter, and what information should that ticket agent be able to access about other “Edward Kennedy” customers to effectively and efficiently ascertain that the senator is not the one s/he is being warned about?
(via Les)