Schumer Calls For Passengers To Be Checked With Terror Watch Lists Before Planes Depart

News reports today indicate that an Alitalia Flight on its way to Boston from Milan, Italy has been diverted because a passengers name matched a name on the Terrorist Watch List. Sen. Schumer, longtime advocate for better aviation and homeland security released the following statement:

Sen. Chuck Schumer said, Just last week, an Air France flight was diverted because the passenger list was not checked before the flight departed. This is becoming a regular occurrence, and it should be a wake up call to the Department of Homeland Security to solve this problem.

It doesnt seem like a mission impossible to require that we check all passengers against the terrorist watch list before a flight heads to the United States. The incredible danger and tremendous inconvenience caused by not clearing names with the terrorist watch list before a flight takes off is unacceptable.

Just last week an Air France flight from Paris to Boston was diverted to Bangor, Maine because a name of a person on the plane was found to be similar to a name on the Terrorist Watch List after the flight departed for the Boston.