Lack of understanding of the complexity of international names caused a near-accident successfully prevented by the Dutchman Jasper Schuringa.
On Flight 253, on its way from Amsterdam to Detroit, a passenger tried to explode the airplane. This passenger was not called John Smith, or Peter Johnson. No, his name was a little more complicated: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Easy to misspell, and that is exactly what happened. A misspelling of the name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab resulted in the State Department believing he did not have a valid U.S. visa.
We love damage control, not prevention
Now we are introducing bodyscan devices, to detect at the airport what could have been detected earlier, if only we would have applied proper technology to detect the misspelling of the name. Government and also ompanies I speak with seem to be satisfied with simple old-fashioned comparison algorithms to “comply”. If we compare the name against the watchlist or against database X, we have done our duty…..
Well, I don’t believe so! It is your responsibility as a governmental organization or company, to act responsible and do the best you can to prevent terrorism. This is not: “let’s do the absolute minimum to comply to the regulations”. This sad example again shows this is irresponsible. A safer world starts with responsible behavior and thinking about prevention. One of the keys for prevention is using sophisticated name-search technology. This will keep us from introducing more expensive solutions for damage control, or worse: me having to fly naked the next time when I visit the USA.
Tags: Blacklist Matching, Customer Due Diligence, Misspelled Name, Terrorist