At least one Canadian airline is concerned that a measure intended to make flying safer could actually spark some security problems in the terminal. A no-fly list of unknown length, but containing a lot of very common names, will be used to screen airline passengers in Canada starting today, and Air Canadas security chief is concerned about the reactions of customers who will inevitably be unjustly flagged by the measure. Yves Duguay told a Parliamentary commission looking into the 1986 Air India bombing that hes concerned about “unruly behavior” from passengers who have the same names as the known terror suspects and violent criminals that are included. “The situation could be very tense, and we need to have an authority figure in place to defuse that situation. So we want to make sure that we have a police presence,” Canadian Press quoted him as saying. As of today, airlines will cross-check all passengers against the secret list, and those who match will have to be interviewed by a Transport Canada official who will decide if they can board. There is currently no mechanism in place to remove a name from the list, which the Canadian Press says is thought to contain fewer than 1,000 names. Just how the list will be consulted and distributed isnt clear.
