orlandosentinel.com — "He thought he did something wrong," his mother, Krista Martin, 36, of Coral Springs, said. "I just think it's kind of ridiculous to put a 7-year-old boy on a no-fly list." The no-fly list is compiled by the Transportation Security Administration and includes only people who are a "known threat to aviation," said agency spokesman Christopher White.
Jul 25, 2007 View in Crawl 4
albionshoresJul 26, 2007
There is a process, your cases are scanned, you walk through a detector, you have passports and tickets. You then have armed people on the plane and the pilots are locked in.
0xbadfoodJul 26, 2007
One false positive is (arguably) better than one false negative. The problem is that this isn't the way it works out. There are several million times as many innocent people as there are terrorists. As a result, to catch *one* additional terrorist, you have to falsely flag several *million* innocent people. And even this might actually be worth something if you could actually catch that one terrorist by doing this, but with such a massive rate of false positives, you end up with so many potential terrorists to sift through that the real one can still end up slipping through the cracks.
topapitoJul 26, 2007
It'd be kinda funny to watch you drive your car to Europe.
pixelbasicJul 26, 2007
A little balance here please...RTFA"Because he shares a name with a known or suspected terrorist, he has run into roadblocks three times before boarding an airliner, Krista Martin (Mother) said. Each time, she was unable to quickly obtain a boarding pass for him online or via an airport kiosk. She had to march to a check-in counter to sort things out, which she said was mostly an inconvenience but also ‘exasperating.’ At the time she makes reservations, she said she lets the airline know her son's age. But she still ends up being denied ease of booking and boarding, she said.” “Judy Graham-Weaver, AirTran spokeswoman, said the only way an airline can clear a child is by seeing the child first. She further contended that only the TSA can remove or add names. ‘If we were to clear the reservation prior to seeing the child, we would have no way to prove we were clearing a child and not an actual no-fly passenger,’ she said.”“In any case, the TSA has a Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, accessible via its Web site, allowing a passenger whose name is on a no-fly list to fill out a form. After the agency confirms that person is not a security threat, he or she receives a "cleared letter," permitting them to travel without further question, White said. Krista Martin (Mother), who works for a bank, said she initially declined to use the redress program because it appeared to be aimed specifically for adults. On Monday, she said she now plans to fill out the forms on behalf of her son.”If it has happened three times before don’t you think you would avoid the hassle and go right to the ticket counter dumbass. Moreover, fill out the f**king form and quit your bitching!
gotamdJul 27, 2007
It's all pretty ridiculous. I'm also on some sort of no-fly list (I was told by one worker that I'm on "the blacklist"), but I fly quite frequently, it just makes it a hassle. It's somewhat strange that one can be on the "no-fly list" and yet still board a plane. I wish there was a way to remove myself, but unfortunately there's no way to go about doing that.
fofusionJul 27, 2007
That's true but that's been the process for many years before 9/11.The simple fact is there are better scanners and ways of tracing things but the government isn't forcing airports to install expensive, more sophisticated scanning equipment that can detect all sorts of explosives and other illegal devices.Saying that there is no way to be 100% sure especially seen as people checking the bags probably aren't paying much attention.There should be a division of some government thing that does test runs carrying various things that are not allowed to see if they are picked up - although may cause an evacuation if not implemented right.
mattinchicagoJul 27, 2007
Why don't you offer one mouth. You are right though if Michael Martin wanted to travel, because there is this list, he might be forced to fake ID, or maybe just not bother!
nicholaiJan 19, 2008
If neocons like you would just kill yourselves, we wouldn't have this problem.
nicholaiJan 19, 2008
You're calling her a bitch? Look in a f**king mirror.