Notice of Public Meeting on Implementing a Passenger Manifest Information Requirement

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

14 CFR Part 243

[Notice No. 96-4; Docket No. 47383]

RIN 2105-AB78

Notice of Public Meeting on Implementing a Passenger Manifest

Information Requirement

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: Announcement of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: On March 29, 1996, DOT will conduct a public meeting on

implementing a passenger manifest information requirement that would

require in the instance of an aviation disaster that occurs on a flight

to or from the United States on a U.S. or foreign air carrier that the

air carrier transmit rapidly to the Department of State information on

the U.S.-citizen passengers on the flight. The public meeting is being

held because it has been brought to the attention of DOT that the

Department of State encountered difficulties in securing information on

U.S.-citizen passengers in the aftermath of the recent Cali, Colombia,

aviation disaster. Since a long period of time has elapsed since this

issue arose originally in the aftermath of the 1988 Lockerbie,

Scotland, aviation disaster, and since DOT received comments in

response to its January 31, 1991, (56 FR 3810) advance notice of

proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on a passenger manifest information

requirement (see also the correction at 56 FR 5665), we believe that a

public meeting during which stakeholders can exchange views and update

knowledge on implementing such a requirement is necessary as a prelude

to DOT proposing a passenger manifest information requirement.

DATES: Public Meeting: Friday, March 29, 1996, at 10:00 a.m.

ADDRESSES: The Public Meeting will be held in Rooms 8236-40, U.S.

Department of Transportation, Nassif Building, 400 7th Street, SW,

Washington, D.C. 20590.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dennis Marvich, Senior Economist,

Office of International Transportation and Trade, DOT, (202)366-4398;

or Joanne Petrie, Senior Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, DOT,

(202)366-4723.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: DOT intends to propose a passenger manifest

information requirement that would require, in the instance of an

aviation disaster that occurs on a flight to or from the United States

on a U.S. or foreign air carrier, that the air carrier transmit rapidly

to the Department of State information on the U.S.-citizen passengers

on the flight. We anticipate that foreign air carriers would be

included because they account for about one half of international

passenger trips to and from the United States, and because section 319

of the DOT FY 1996 Appropriation Act states, ``None of the funds

provided in this Act shall be made available for planning and executing

a passenger manifest program by the Department of Transportation that

only applies to United States flag carriers.''

A passenger manifest information requirement was contained in

section 203 of the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990 (ASIA),

Public Law 101-604, which was enacted in response to concerns about

difficulties that the Department of State experienced in securing

information on U.S.-citizen passengers in the aftermath of the 1988 Pan

Am 103 aviation disaster over Lockerbie, Scotland. A discussion of that

experience is found in Chapter 7 of the Report of the President's

Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (Washington, D.C.: 1990).

The complete text of section 203 of ASIA follows:

``Sec. 203. Passenger Manifest.

(a) Mandatory Availability of Passenger Manifest.--Section 410 of

the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 [Note: Section 410 of the Federal

Aviation Act of 1958 is now recodified as 49 U.S.C. 44909] is amended

to read as follows:

``Sec. 410. Passenger Manifest.

``(a) Requirement.--Not later than 120 days after the date of the

enactment of this section, the Secretary of Transportation shall

require all United States air carriers to provide a passenger manifest

for any flight to appropriate representatives of the United States

Department of State--

``(1) Not later than 1 hour after any such carrier is notified of

an aviation disaster outside the United States which involves such

flight; or

``(2) If it is not technologically feasible or reasonable to

fulfill the requirement of this subsection within 1 hour, then as

expeditiously as possible, but not later than 3 hours after such

notification.

``(b) Contents.--For purposes of this section, a passenger manifest

should include the following information:

``(1) The full name of each passenger.

``(2) The passport number of each passenger, if required for

travel.

``(3) The name and telephone number of a contact for each

passenger.''

(b) Implementation.--In implementing the requirement pursuant to

the amendment made by subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary of

Transportation shall consider the necessity and feasibility of

requiring United States air carriers to collect passenger manifest

information as a condition for passenger boarding of any flight subject

to such requirement.

(c) Foreign Air Carriers.--The Secretary of Transportation shall

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consider a requirement for foreign air carriers comparable to that

imposed pursuant to the amendment made by subsection (a).

(d) Information From United States Passports.--Notwithstanding any

other provision of law, to the extent provided in appropriations Acts,

for each fiscal year not more than $5,000,000 in passport fees

collected by the Department of State may be credited to a Department of

State account. Amounts credited to such account shall be available only

for the costs associated with the acquisition and production of

machine-readable United States passports and visas and compatible

reading equipment. Amounts credited to such account are authorized to

remain available until expended.

(e) Conforming Amendment to Table of Contents.--The table of

contents contained in the first section of the Federal Aviation Act of

1958 is amended by striking the item relating to section 410 and

inserting the following:

``Sec. 410. Passenger Manifest.''.

Public Law 101-604 also sets forth Department of State notification

responsibilities in section 204. The complete text of Section 204

follows:

Sec. 204. Department of State Notification of Families of Victims.

(a) Department of State Policy.--It is the policy of the Department

of State pursuant to section 43 of the State Department Basic

Authorities Act to directly and promptly notify the families of victims

of aviation disasters abroad concerning citizens of the United States

directly affected by such a disaster, including timely written notice.

The Secretary of State shall insure that such notification by the

Department of State is carried out notwithstanding notification by any

other person.

(b) Department of State Guidelines.--Not later than 60 days after

the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall issue

regulations, guidelines, and circulars as are necessary to ensure that

the policy under subsection (a) is fully implemented.

In response to a January 31, 1991 (56 FR 3810), advance notice of

proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on a passenger manifest information

requirement (see also the correction at 56 FR 5665), DOT received

comments indicating that the costs of implementing a passenger manifest

information requirement such as the one found in section 203 would be

extremely high. Additional comments on the high costs of implementing

section 203 were received in response to President Bush's 1992

Regulatory Moratorium and Review. In light of these comments and the

fact that aviation disasters occur so rarely, DOT has scrutinized

section 203 in an effort to determine if a low-cost way to implement a

passenger manifest information requirement exists. DOT has considered

seeking repeal of section 203. Because it has been reported to DOT that

difficulties were experienced by the Department of State in securing a

list of passengers in the aftermath of the recent American Airlines

crash in Cali, Colombia, DOT now, however, intends to propose a

passenger manifest information requirement.

The Cali, Colombia, incident took place almost exactly seven years

after the passenger manifest issue first arose in connection with the

Pan Am 103 tragedy. It has been over five years since DOT received

comments in response to its ANPRM on this subject. In the interim,

issues surrounding and operational aspects regarding the best way to

implement a passenger manifest information requirement may have

changed. DOT is interested in getting up-to-date information on how it

can implement a passenger manifest requirement so that U.S. and foreign

carriers alike can achieve the most effective transmission of

information after an aviation disaster at a cost that the general

public and the aviation community will find reasonable. The purpose of

the public meeting is to gather information and allow stakeholders in

the implementation of a passenger manifest information requirement to

exchange views.

The meeting will be tape recorded. Any written submissions will be

placed in the docket, and should be submitted to: Documentary Services

Division--Docket 47383, C-55, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room

PL-40l, 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20590. We request, but do

not require, that three copies be submitted.

DOT will seek answers to the following questions at the public

meeting. In addition, other questions may arise in the course of the

meeting.

Information Availability and Current Notification Practice

1. What information regarding the passengers on an international

flight to or from the United States does or should an air carrier have

on-hand within one hour of learning that an aviation disaster has

occurred? In what form is this information kept, electronic or

otherwise? What degree of accuracy exists with regard to a passenger

manifest that is produced quickly? Is implementing a passenger manifest

information requirement simply a matter of legally requiring, in the

instance of an aviation disaster, that this already-on-hand information

must be transmitted rapidly to the Department of State? Do answers to

these questions change if the time period is extended to three hours?

What is the process of refining or confirming initial information as

more time elapses?

2. Apart from the passenger information that is available within 1-

3 hours, does other information on the passenger exist and what does it

consist of? Who has this information, the air carrier or others? What

is involved in accessing the information, and how long is it likely to

take to access it?

3. In the event of an aviation disaster, how does an air carrier

currently compile an accurate list of passengers, respond to inquiries

from the families of passengers, and notify the families of passengers

of the fate of passengers? How long does this take from the time the

first family is notified until the time that the last family is

notified? Does the air carrier wait until the identity of all

passengers on the flight is known before making notifications, or does

the air carrier make notifications on a so-called ``rolling basis''?

What information is given to the Department of State and how quickly?

Is the information given to others, such as the news media, and how

quickly?

4. How does an air carrier respond to inquiries from families who

believe that a family member(s) may have been on a flight before the

air carrier has determined for itself whether or not this individual(s)

was on the flight? Before the air carrier has determined the fate of

the passenger(s) in question? What information is compiled by the air

carrier in order to answer inquiries/make notifications and how is it

obtained? Is all of the information that is listed in section 203 of

Public Law 101-604 (full name, passport number [if required for

travel], contact name, contact telephone number) compiled by the air

carrier for each passenger before or during this process? If so, when?

If not, what information is not compiled?

Privacy Considerations

5. Some foreign governments indicated in ANPRM comments that

privacy laws in effect in their countries would prevent collecting

passenger information in their countries. Since section 203 would only

require information to be collected from U.S.-citizen passengers, if

this information were only used in the event of an aviation disaster,

and then only disclosed to the Department of State, would any general

privacy concerns arise? If the information were allowed to

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be shared with other U.S. Government agencies, such as U.S. Customs

Service, which collects similar information from passengers for input

into its Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), would any

additional privacy concerns arise? Are there ways to overcome these

privacy concerns?

6. We have been told that air carriers currently are reluctant to

provide passenger information to the Department of State in the absence

of a waiver of responsibility for disclosure of the information to

third parties. What falls within the ambit of this issue? To what

extent does the 1974 Privacy Act govern this issue?

Similar Information Requirements

7. The Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) of the U.S.

Customs Service requires participating air carriers (participation is

voluntary) to collect a passenger's full name, passport number, date of

birth, and other information, but not contact information. U.S. Customs

provides electronic passport readers to air carriers participating in

the program. APIS information (API) is currently collected for about 50

percent of U.S.-incoming passengers (U.S. citizens and non-U.S.

citizens). For a covered flight, API is collected on the ground and

then transmitted to the U.S. Customs Service while the flight is en

route, so, were an APIS-covered flight to end in disaster, the API

would be available for immediate transmittal to the Department of

State. API is collected by using electronic scanning devices to scan

the information on the optical character recognition (OCR) zone of U.S.

and other countries' machine-readable passports. (Emergency contact

information is not available from the magnetic strip.) Could the API

information be used to fulfill the passenger manifest information

requirement of section 203? If air carriers were required to also

collect contact information for U.S. citizens on APIS flights, how

would they likely do so? What would be the practical effects of doing

so?

8. It is our understanding that as part of the passport

application, the Department of State currently collect information on

emergency contacts. It is also our understanding that this contact

information is optional, that is, the information is not required to be

provided in order to receive a passport. Further, we understand that

the Department of State's passport information is automated and that,

if provided, contact information is maintained as part of this

automated passport information. We would like to know what role this

Department of State contact information might play in identifying the

families of passengers aboard a flight that ends in disaster? What

information is needed to access Department of State passport records?

Can these records be accurately accessed using APIS information?

Information Collection Technique

9. Some comments received by DOT said that passenger manifest

information, by necessity, would have to be collected primarily at the

time of reservation in computer reservation systems (CRSs). (It was,

however, recognized in these comments that all passengers would not

provide the information at the time of reservation, and thus that

provision would also have to be made to collect the information from

some passengers at the airport.) Others have mentioned the approach of

redesigning boarding passes so they would have a detachable stub that

could be filled out by passengers and dropped in a box just before

boarding their flight. APIS, the closest counterpart collection system

that we are aware of, usually involves, as we understand it, airport

scanning of passports with input of the information into the air

carrier's CRS. What are the pros and cons of these different collection

systems for the large scale collection of passenger manifest

information?

Elements of the Cost of Collecting Passenger Manifest Information

10. Executive order 12866 requires the Department of Transportation

to quantify the costs and benefits of regulations that it proposes and

issues. What are the cost elements that would be involved in collecting

passenger manifest information, limiting the discussion to only the

additional costs that would be incurred? How much additional time would

it take to collect passenger manifest information from a passenger?

What would one-time costs consist of? What would recurring, annual

costs consist of? Approximately what percentage of recurring, annual

costs would be for additional personnel to collect the information?

Give an approximate compensation (salary plus benefits) figure for the

additional personnel that would collect the information?

Issued in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 1996

Patrick V. Murphy,

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs.

[FR Doc. 96-6357 Filed 3-14-96; 8:45 am]

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