Congressional Investigators Say It's Behind Schedule And May Not Work

It could be the most severe blow yet to the TSA's Secure Flight program -- a report from the Government Accountability Office that says the program is not only behind schedule, but has yet to prove it will protect the privacy of air passengers.

The TSA hopes to roll out Secure Flight with two airlines -- as yet unidentified -- by August. The massive database application is aimed at determining what level of screening is appropriate to each passenger when he enters an airport security checkpoint.

Out of ten steps critical to developing its passenger screening application, the TSA has completed just one, according to the report. GAO investigators write they aren't confident that the program will debut as scheduled.

"It is uncertain how well Secure Flight will perform or whether it will be ready for operational deployment by August 2005," the GAO report said, quoted by the Washington Post.

One of the biggest issues is the elimination of false positives -- people whose names are close enough to those on various government watch lists to spark interest.

As ANN has reported in the past, many of those false-positives have proven to be insurmountable barriers to travel for some. Others, faced with constant delays and repeated body searches, have simply given up their attempts to travel by commercial flight. 

Even Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA, right) has had trouble getting a flight because his name was apparently on the government's no-fly list.

The TSA has also yet to explain how it will deploy Secure Flight overseas, according to the report. European airlines are prevented by law from sharing passenger data with the US government.

But a TSA spokeswoman disagrees with the GAO assessment, saying the agency remains hopeful it can launch Secure Flight in August, as scheduled. In fact, early testing of the program "not only confirmed all of TSA's hypotheses, but demonstrated key aspects of functionality" Yolanda Clark told the Post.

FMI: www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=5&content=09000519800cf3a7