Americans at Risk - Kirk Proposal Will Protect Citizens Flying Abroad

Press Release

Following the revelation that two passengers aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 managed to board the plane with stolen passports, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today unveiled a new agenda to strengthen aviation safety protocols worldwide.

The proposed security enhancements require the Department of State to publish a list of countries and airports that do not regularly check travelers' documentation against INTERPOL's Stolen/Lost Travel Document (SLTD) database, which contains over 40 million names, passport numbers, and other identifiers based on countries' reporting of lost or stolen travel documents.

Currently, the process of checking information against the SLTD is voluntary and varies from country to country. While the United States checks passport information against the INTERPOL system for all flights, there is no guarantee that other countries will follow the same procedures prior to a flight.

The proposal would also require the Department of State to include information about a country's level of participation using the SLTD system in the travel alerts and country profiles listed on the Department's website and the websites of U.S. embassies.

"American citizens traveling between foreign destinations should be able to rest assured that individuals on their flight did not use lost or stolen travel documents to board the plane," Sen. Kirk said. "It is unacceptable that other countries do not adhere to the same safety standards as the United States."

Sen. Kirk was joined by Dr. Robert Pape, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Chicago and the Director of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism.

"Although the disappearance of Malaysian Air Flight 370 remains a mystery, we now know -- and terrorist groups now almost surely know -- that passports of airline passengers are rarely checked except in the United States, Great Britain, and the United Arab Emirates against Interpol's database of stolen and lost transit documents. This gap in aviation security is serious," Pape said. "The association of terrorists and stolen passports means it is prudent to close the current gap in airline security. We should not wait for a future case of a terrorist using a stolen passport in an attack to guard against this threat."

Currently, the United States requires airlines to provide passport number, name, and all other pertinent passenger data 72 hours before the flight. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) then runs the data through the INTERPOL SLTD database and the State Department's Consular Lookout and Support System. If the names or information match an entry in one of the databases, CBP reviews the case and may issue a "no board" recommendation.

CBP issued nearly 500 no-board recommendations based on the INTERPOL SLTD in FY 2013. One case identified in written testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee on April 4, 2014 involved an Iranian national traveling on a stolen U.S. passport. This individual was arrested and the passport was successfully recovered prior to boarding a flight to the U.S.

"Our goal here is not to publish vulnerabilities of international airports, but rather to elevate the safety procedures of countries that do not regularly use INTERPOL's SLTD database, and enhance the safety of citizens flying worldwide," Sen. Kirk said.

The INTERPOL database, which was established in 2002, was searched more than 800 million times in 2013. Of those 800 million searches, 60 percent were conducted by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.

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