JetBlue Erases All Doubt | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.22.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.16.24

Airborne-FlightTraining-04.17.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers-04.18.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.19.24

Join Us At 0900ET, Friday, 4/10, for the LIVE Morning Brief.
Watch It LIVE at
www.airborne-live.net

Tue, Sep 23, 2003

JetBlue Erases All Doubt

JetBlue CEO Answers Aero-News

by Tim Kern

Last week was a tough one for jetBlue, as allegations and possible evidence of the airline's collaboration with the DHS and TSA came up. We printed our preliminary information on Wednesday; later Wednesday, the airline's Vice President of Corporate Communications got back to me. That response was published Thursday. By Friday night, Tom Brokaw was talking about the beginning of the story on NBC.

I asked jetBlue, through that company's website:

I would like an explanation of how jetBlue's PNR data, shared with DoD, got to your contractor, Torch Concepts (Torch Technologies), and then into a paper for the National Defense Industrial Association, which was posted to the Internet.

The report contains SSNs, DoB, and home address information.

1) When DoD transfered this information to Torch, what safeguards did you employ?
2) What permission did you give Torch, to publish this information?
3) Why would what is presumed to be private information allowed to be used in a public association forum; and did DoD give the NDIA permission to release the information on the web?
4) Torch denies ever working for DHS, yet its paper, delivered by Bill Rorke (their CEO) is titled, "Homeland Security: Airline Passenger Risk Assessment." Is DoD supplying citizen dossiers to the DHS, directly or indirectly?
5) What other programs is our military (which is supposed to protect us) working on, that can, through the negligence of government or government agents, harm us?

Perhaps you have an answer to at least some of these questions. Please let me know. Thank you.

We got the last word, and directly from the top:

Dear Mr. Kern,

Thank you for writing to JetBlue so that I have an opportunity to apologize to you personally and set the record straight.

Most importantly, JetBlue has never supplied, nor will supply, customer information to the Transportation Security Administration, or any government agency, unless we are required to do so by law -- not for CAPPS II or for any other purposes, whatsoever.

However, I regret that, more than a year ago, we responded to an exceptional request from the Department of Defense to assist their contractor, Torch Concepts, with a project regarding military base security. This project had no connection with aviation security or the CAPPS II program and no data files were ever shared with the Department of Defense or any other government agency or contractor.

We provided limited historical customer data including names, addresses and phone numbers. It DID NOT include personal financial information, credit card information, or social security numbers.

Torch further developed this information into a presentation, without JetBlue's knowledge, for a Department of Homeland Security symposium. 

We regret that this presentation included the personal information of one customer -- although the customer's name was not used. Again, we had no knowledge of this presentation until [your report surfaced] and we were deeply dismayed to learn of it.

The sole set of data in Torch's possession has been destroyed; no government agency ever had access to it. With Torch's help, we are continuing to make every effort to have the Torch presentation with the one customer's information removed from the internet.

This was a mistake on our part and I know you and many of our customers feel betrayed by it. We deeply regret that this happened and have taken steps to fix the situation and make sure that it never happens again.

I am saddened that we have shaken your faith in JetBlue but I assure you personally that we are committed to making this right.

Sincerely, David Neeleman, Chief Executive Officer

We thank Mr. Neeleman, and jetBlue, for their forthright communications; and we caution other entities to be extremely careful about their sharing data with "secure" elements of the government.

FMI: www.jetblue.com

Advertisement

More News

Airbus Racer Helicopter Demonstrator First Flight Part of Clean Sky 2 Initiative

Airbus Racer Demonstrator Makes Inaugural Flight Airbus Helicopters' ambitious Racer demonstrator has achieved its inaugural flight as part of the Clean Sky 2 initiative, a corners>[...]

Diamond's Electric DA40 Finds Fans at Dübendorf

A little Bit Quieter, Said Testers, But in the End it's Still a DA40 Diamond Aircraft recently completed a little pilot project with Lufthansa Aviation Training, putting a pair of >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.23.24): Line Up And Wait (LUAW)

Line Up And Wait (LUAW) Used by ATC to inform a pilot to taxi onto the departure runway to line up and wait. It is not authorization for takeoff. It is used when takeoff clearance >[...]

NTSB Final Report: Extra Flugzeugbau GMBH EA300/L

Contributing To The Accident Was The Pilot’s Use Of Methamphetamine... Analysis: The pilot departed on a local flight to perform low-altitude maneuvers in a nearby desert val>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: 'Never Give Up' - Advice From Two of FedEx's Female Captains

From 2015 (YouTube Version): Overcoming Obstacles To Achieve Their Dreams… At EAA AirVenture 2015, FedEx arrived with one of their Airbus freight-hauling aircraft and placed>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC