Who's Sitting in 14D?

By Sally B. Donnelly, Viveca Novak and Elaine Shannon

The spate of canceled international flights has abated since the chaotic holiday weeks. But tension between U.S. and European security officials over how to keep these flights safe has not. After a meeting in Europe last week, the U.S. failed to get European airlines to agree to put armed air marshals on high-risk flights. Some said they would rather ground the flights than see guns in the air. Foreign cargo airlines are also chafing under a new U.S. requirement that they provide information 24 hours before departure about anyone on the plane, including couriers, animal handlers and others who often accompany cargo. It's a measure that is almost unworkable, said a foreign-airline expert, because the industry relies on last-minute deliveries and such jobs change hands too frequently.

Yet the U.S. is determined to get better information on who is boarding planes. "Our biggest problem is simply one of getting more information earlier on foreign airlines' passenger lists, with identifying information," Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary of Homeland Security, tells TIME. Too often, he says, "we get the final names and additional information like passport numbers as the doors close." That means any terrorist threat becomes apparent only after the plane takes off. On New Year's Eve, for example, U.S. intelligence got word that terrorists might have targeted British Airways Flight 223--but only after it was on its way to Washington. Between 80 and 90 passenger names were then singled out for scrutiny because they matched or were similar to those on various watch lists, FBI officials tell TIME. As customs analysts frantically researched passenger backgrounds, U.S. fighter jets tailed the plane, intending to shoot it down if a suicide hijacker took control. After being held and questioned for several hours on a distant tarmac at Dulles International Airport, all 247 passen gers were cleared. --By Sally B. Donnelly, Viveca Novak and Elaine Shannon