Stuck on the No-Fly or Selectee Lists

Ryan Singel 09.26.05

The Transportation Security Agency uses two different watch lists. The best known is the no-fly list, a list of people who are not allowed to get on a plane. The other is called the selectee list and contains the names of people whose boarding passes will always be marked with SSSS and who have to undergo intensive extra screening of their person and carry-ons.

According to TSA documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, call-center employees were at one time told they could only clear the names of those who incorrectly matched the no-fly list. Travelers who were on the selectee list were simply told that they were not on the no-fly list and there could be a number of reasons they were selected for extra screening. The boilerplate language did not mention the possibility that their names matched those on a watch list different from the no-fly list.

The TSA has since revised its policy and now helps those whose names are similar to those on both the no-fly and selectee list, according to spokeswoman Deirdre O'Sullivan. TSA can't remove names from the no-fly list, but it can put names on a cleared list, which can help travelers bypass red tape.

Erroneous entries on the watch lists can only be removed by the law enforcement or intelligence agency that put the name on the list.

If someone who is actually on either list contacts the TSA, the TSA now will refer the match to the Terrorist Screening Center, which will then ask the appropriate law-enforcement or intelligence agency to review the record for accuracy. This policy was put into place this summer.

O'Sullivan suggested that travelers who continually experience difficulty getting a boarding pass not call, but instead fill out a form available on the TSA's website.

As of August 2005, 26,000 people have submitted that form, O'Sullivan said.

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