Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Times Square Bomber Almost Escapes

Well, we can chalk up yet another near failure of the "no-fly" list.

By the time Customs and Border Protection officials spotted Shahzad's name on the passenger list and recognized him as the bombing suspect they were looking for, he was in his seat and the plane was preparing to leave the gate. They knew to look for him because of updates to the no-fly list made earlier in the day.

At the last minute, the pilot was notified, the jetliner's door was opened and Shahzad was taken into custody.

Why doesn't the no-fly list come up when the person is paying cash for the ticket at the counter? You would think that was fairly rare and the ticket taker would raise a red flag. I have a feeling that they didn't pull this guy out of the line and wand him neither. I guess you can't eliminate human error even when the flight originates in the US.

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