“Actually, 2 passengers had the same names as two people with Islamic terror ties.”
Yeah. That’s one of the problems. Arabs are not terribly imaginative when it comes to naming their offspring. It makes it difficult to determine identity.
My airline (and actually our aircraft), was one of the first major carriers with aircraft in the air after 9-11. Arriving at SFO we were advised before gate arrival that the FBI & SFO cops would be coming on board to detain a passenger. I had the FA’s keep the folks seated, and the pax was removed. While eating breakfast I noticed the FBI agent coming down the concourse so I stopped him and asked what the story was. He advised that they’d let the guy go This was when the “list” was only a page and a half long. A LONG time ago for sure.
The comment from the agent was, “I guess it’s a bad day to be named Mohammed).
There’s the problem with doing a valid ID on these folks. Their all named Mohammed. It’s not like Al Qaida gives them badges with ID numbers.