[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 52 (Friday, March 15, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10706-10708]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-6357]



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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

[[Page 10707]]
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

[[Page 10708]]
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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