February 1, 2010
A Continental Airlines flight bound for Bogotá, Colombia had to be diverted to Jacksonville, Florida Friday after a passenger was mistakenly identified as having matched a suspected terrorist on the “no-fly” list.
A Continental Airline official, who spoke anonymously, said that upon arriving at the Jacksonville, Florida airport, the passenger was screened by the FBI and cleared to continue flying onto Colombia.
The situation was quite scary for the 75 passengers aboard Continental flight 881 in light of the Christmas day attempted bombing of a Detroit flight by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Under the current screening system, if a passenger’s name shows up on the no-fly list or is similar to a name on the list, that individual is either banned from boarding that flight or processed for further screening in order to positively identify them and ensure they are no threat before being allowed to fly.
The new identification program, which the Transportation Security Administration says most domestic airlines will switch to by March with the exception of two airlines, is called Secure Flight.
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