The US was discussing with foreign airlines the possibility of accessing the passenger lists of planes that fly over US territory, to ferret out possible terrorists, US authorities said.
"We are working closely with our international aviation partners in giving thoughtful consideration to all aspects of this," Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Amy Von Walter said Thursday.
Currently planes that land in the US must send passenger lists before they take off for the US airport. The names are checked with US lists of suspected and wanted terrorists.
The demand is one of the many security measures imposed since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
"We have not made any final decision on the implementation at this point. Certainly, in everything we do, our motivation is to further enhance security conditions," the spokeswoman said. "We are reviewing that issue, we are giving it thoughtful consideration."
US officials said they are concerned that planes flying over US territory could be hijacked and slammed against US targets, much the same as hijacked planes by terrorists were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in New York, and the Pentagon, in Washington, in 2001 killing nearly 3,000 people.
They said the list of passengers overflying US territory would be compared to "no-fly" lists of suspected terrorists and of people who represent a possible threat to aviation.
A Homeland Security official familiar with the discussions with foreign airlines told the Washington Post that they were focusing on whether the airlines or the US government would check the passenger names against the watch lists.
The proposal, the daily said, has angered European, Mexican and Canadian airlines, which operate most of the 500 flights that daily fly over the US without landing.
If the airlines do not comply with the US order to provide their passenger lists, which the daily said could be issued in coming weeks, they would have to reroute their flights.
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