Here’s How To Keep The Capitol Rioters From Flying Back To DC, Say Flight Attendants - Forbes

When Twitter permanently banned President Trump from its platform following the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week, the social media platform put out a stark warning that there was more violence to come from pro-Trump supporters.

“Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021,” according to Twitter’s statement. There have also been numerous reports that multiple pro-Trump groups are planning violence in Washington DC on Inauguration Day, January 20.

Now flight attendants are calling on the TSA and airlines to immediately ramp up their game against domestic terrorism to ensure the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 cannot fly back to Washington DC later this month.

“We support the swiftest action with clear consequences and clear rules for keeping these people off planes,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), a union representing 50,000 flight attendants on 17 airlines, said.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security has called for the Capitol rioters to be added to the TSA’s No-Fly List, but that may not happen before the inauguration.

In the meantime, Nelson said there is much more the FBI, TSA and U.S. airlines can do right now to prevent the people who stormed the Capitol from returning to Washington DC this month.

For starters, airlines should conduct a review of the manifests for the flights to and from DC before and after the January 6 riot. “While the airlines cannot coordinate on competitive issues, they certainly can coordinate on safety issues,” Nelson said.

Airlines should share names of passengers, especially those who were flagged for unruly behavior or worse. “An airline could say ‘we have banned this person because of XYZ’ and that could actually become an individual ban on each airline,” she said.

Airlines could also coordinate a temporary cross-industry no-fly list that is targeted for a specific time period or for specific airports. “This would allow airlines to say, ‘These people present a risk, and they can't be flying in the next week or whatever time period,’” Nelson said.

“Typically this would not be something that the airlines would do themselves, but this is not a typical time,” she said. “That could certainly be done in coordination with the FBI and TSA. The FBI can certainly say, ‘These people are a flight risk.’”

Nelson said the TSA should immediately flag the individuals who participated in the Capitol riots as high-risk passengers. “We now have information about these people and that should be run through the TSA’s risk-based analysis. And the risk should be identified as quite high.”

In recent years, the U.S. government has deemed domestic terrorism as the predominant threat to the nation. Three months ago, the Department of Homeland Security’s annual Homeland Threat Assessment report warned that violent white supremacy was the “most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland.”

“So that information should be reflected in the approach that TSA takes with risk-based security,” Nelson said. That includes screening techniques for individual domestic terrorist threats and deploying additional air marshals to flights with the greatest perceived risk of homegrown insurgents.

“At the least, these individuals should be flagged for additional screening that includes a behavioral assessment at the airport by people who are trained to do that, and to determine whether or not they're going to be a risk on the flight,” Nelson said.

In the bigger picture, Nelson would like to see clearer, more focused leadership at the federal level. “I’d like to see a task force or security czar. We obviously haven't had that kind of coordination under this White House. We need deterrents for people who might be thinking about using planes to harm or disrupt.”

“We in aviation have a serious role to play in national security. Airlines, in coordination with TSA, DHS, FAA, DOT and law enforcement must take all steps to ensure the safety and security of passengers and crew by keeping all problems on the ground,” said the AFA in a statement. “Acts against our democracy, our government, and the freedom we claim as Americans must disqualify these individuals from the freedom of flight.”

READ MORE

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Here’s How To Keep The Capitol Rioters From Flying Back To DC, Say Flight Attendants - Forbes
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