US plans revised pre-flight screening scheme

THE US government proposed a third version of its airline passenger pre-screening programme yesterday, stripped of controversial data that had aroused privacy concerns and blocked earlier versions.

At the same time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that in six months’ time airlines operating international flights will be required to send the government their passenger list data before the planes take off rather than afterwards, as is the case today.

The early sharing of information was designed to give US authorities more time to identify and remove suspected terrorists from flights.