12) What percentage of air travelers are currently on government lists of people who are considered dangerous for travel on commercial airlines, also call "no-fly" lists?

Since 1990, the US Government has maintained a watch list of people restricted from flying because they pose a threat to passenger and airline safety. Starting in 1998, each airline was required to setup an FAA-approved passenger screening system. These programs, officially called Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening systems (CAPPS) expanded the original watchlists.

Because several of the9/11 hijackers had been singled out for additional scrutiny by the CAPPS systems, the government has been evaluating and expanding the prescreening process.

According to testimony by Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Admiral James Loy, roughly 14 to 15%, or 1 out of 7, of all air travelers are currently identified as dangerous.

For those unlucky flyers who have been fingered, the process of getting on an airplane has become a torture. Passengers report extensive and time-consuming screening, rude treatment and unclear answers to justifiable questions. Many miss their flights; others have become known to business colleagues as the person NOT to travel with.

The confusion in the system is evident. One 'high-risk' flier is a woman whose name matches the true suspect, an Australian man; another is at least 20 years older than his suspected namesake. Still another man, whose name actually does match a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, missed his flight while waiting for a clearance. When all was sorted out, the airline gave him an apology and a meal voucher and booked him on a flight for the next day. The following day, however, he got to the airport only to find the entire lengthy process of suspicious questioning starting anew all over again.

While the airport experiences are bad, what's worse for these harassed travelers is that when they take steps to remove their names from the watchlists, many enter into a maze of referrals that leads nowhere. Some have turned to their Congressman - which may explain, in part, why Congress is paying more attention to development of CAPPS II, the next generation passenger screening program.

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