The Department of Homeland Security has finally woken up, and now admits that the No-Fly List has its problems.

The list (a mishmash of multiple lists, actually) has plenty of bugs. Perhaps most famously, Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy was kept off of airplanes, because someone with the same name was a suspected terrorist.

Getting your name removed from the list has, until now, been a painstaking and thankless task, with no guarantee of success. That’s supposed to improve now, via a simplified online “redress procedure,” which naturally comes with a government-ese acronym. It’s the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP). Get it? “Trip”? Alright then.

If you’re on the list, you can visit the DHS TRIP site and get the ball rolling. It’s unclear how long it takes to see real action, but in theory you should hear back within days, rather than the months it used to take. — MARK ASHLEY

DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program [Department of Homeland Security]
(Photo: RussellReno)

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