Airlines will soon be required to give the government passenger lists for all U.S.-bound international flights before takeoff, the nation's homeland security chief said Wednesday.
The new regulations, which could be in place by early next year, would make permanent a counterterror measure taken after last week's foiled plot to bomb trans-Atlantic flights.
"This is part of our border authority," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"The reason we haven't moved this is because the airlines were concerned about what they would do about passengers who would come up at the last minute, and they don't want to hold the flights up," Chertoff said. "Our position has been: Isn't it better to know before the plane takes off than to turn the plane around? Which I think is correct. So we're on a course to getting this piece nailed down."
Chertoff said the policy switch was already being discussed before British authorities said they had cracked a months-long plot to bomb as many as 10 flights headed for the United States from London. In announcing the plot, the U.S. government demanded that airlines submit their passenger lists before taking off on all inbound flights from the United Kingdom.
Airlines have long resisted handing over the lists, concerned that the time it takes for the government to screen passenger names against terrorism "no-fly" databases will bring costly delays.
Currently, airlines have to submit passenger lists for international flights 15 minutes after takeoff.
Chertoff's comments came a few hours after fighter jets escorted a London-to-Washington flight to Boston's Logan airport after the pilot declared an emergency. Federal officials concluded the flight did not pose a terrorism threat after the disturbance was attributed to an apparently claustrophobic passenger who got into a confrontation with the flight crew.
Three days before the Britain plot was disclosed, a London-to-Boston flight was called back to Heathrow Airport after U.S. authorities discovered a passenger's name was on their "no-fly" list. Four passengers were questioned by border control officers.
The Bush administration also is considering permanently banning liquids from being carried on flights and requiring all passengers to take off their shoes while going through security checkpoints, Chertoff said. But no final decisions have been made, he said.
Authorities put U.S.-bound flights from Britain on red alert for four days after last week's plot was foiled - the first time the government's highest threat warning level has been issued. The "severe" threat level for those flights was lowered Sunday to orange, signifying a high risk of attack, to match security measures taken for all other international and domestic flights.
It's not clear when the threat level for airlines might be lowered from orange to yellow, where it was before the plot. "It's going to be driven by events," Chertoff said.
Threat levels against other transportation sectors - and the rest of the country in general - also are at yellow, which signifies an "elevated" risk of attack.
As many as 41 people have been held or questioned in Britain and Pakistan in connection with the plot, but there remains no indication that any of the plans involved people in the United States, Chertoff said.
Still, the security chief said he is concerned that attacks could be launched "because they believe we're currently distracted."
"My emphatic message to everybody has been: 'This is not the time to let your guard down,'" Chertoff said. "This is the time to increase your guard for everything, because we don't want someone who wants to seize the moment to be able to do something."
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