No Fly List - 2 hours is still too long!

When updates are made to the no-fly list (NFL), notifications are sent to airlines instructing them to check the updated list. Until now, airlines have been required to check for updated lists every 24 hours. Effective immediately, airlines will have to check the updated list within two hours of being notified of changes. The TSA says airlines could be fined if they don't comply. Fined? They could lose an airliner and hundreds of lives simply because they didn't check the list; how safe does that make you feel?

The no-fly list has been one of the government's most public counter terrorism tools since it went into effect after the 9/11 attacks. But the list is only as good as the airline employees & other officials who analyze it and match names against it. I would imagine that if red flags, flashing lights, and loud bells clanging are not enough to alert everybody about a matched name, then they shouldn't be in that type of position.

If an intelligence lead is not shared, or if an analyst is unable to connect one piece of information to another, or if an airline decides not to look at an updated version of the list, someone on the list can board an airliner.

Though even with the best of intentions the time lag for reviewing the updated NFL is still troubling. If somebody does something bad or has bad intentions they can still jump in a cab, subway or drive themselves to the airport & purchase a ticket and leave the country even if their name was placed on the NFL immediately after their bad deed - presuming that they were known immediately - because the airlines and others can still wait to connect the dots for a full 2 hours.

You'd think in this day & age of fast tracking computers able to link each other immediately that it wouldn't even take 2 hours - that an updated NFL would simply be available and automatically preempt the previous. We deserve better.