Emirates denied negligence over its failure to update a US no-fly list, allowing the suspect in the attempted May 1 car bombing in New York’s Times Square to board a flight to Dubai.
The Dubai-based airline said in an e-mailed statement received on Thursday that it’s “in full compliance” with all passenger check-in procedures in the US and works closely with US border security agencies to “update security watch lists on a regular and timely basis.”
Agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested Faisal Shahzad at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport May 3 on Emirates’ EK202 flight to Dubai, which was about to take off. Shahzad, a naturalised American citizen from Pakistan, admitted his role in the plot, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said May 4.
Shahzad was put on the federal no-fly list early on the afternoon of May 3, according to a law-enforcement official who requested anonymity. Within an hour, federal authorities sent out an electronic advisory.
Airlines must update their computer systems individually with additions and Emirates didn’t do so, the official said. The flight to Dubai, scheduled to depart at 11.00 p.m., left seven hours later after all the passengers and luggage had been screened.
“Clearly the guy was on the plane and shouldn’t have been,” said Mayor Michael R Bloomberg. “We got lucky,” he said, adding that he was reluctant to criticize those in charge of airport security.
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