49 U.S.C. § 44905 — Information about threats to civil aviation

(a) Providing information. Under TSA Administrator guidelines, an air carrier, airport operator, ticket agent, or their employee who receives information about a civil-aviation threat, other than a United States Government communication, must promptly give it to the Administrator. (b) Flight cancellation. If a particular threat cannot be addressed well enough to protect, as far as feasible, the passengers and crew of a flight or series of flights, the Administrator must cancel it. (c) Public notice guidelines. (1) The President must develop guidelines for public notice in appropriate threat cases. The guidelines must identify officials who will decide case by case whether notice serves the United States and traveling public, ensure timely and effective notice including a toll-free number, and cancel flights under subsection (b). (2) The guidelines must consider the threat’s specificity, the credibility of related intelligence, the ability to counter it, protection of intelligence sources and methods, cancellation instead of public notice, passengers’ and crew’s ability to reduce risk after notice, and other factors the Administrator considers appropriate. (d) Notice to crews. The Administrator must develop guidelines for giving flight and cabin crews appropriate notice of threats to an air-carrier flight. (e) Selective travelers. Notice may be given only to selected potential travelers if the threat applies only to them. (f) Access restrictions. Working with agencies that collect, receive, and analyze aviation-security intelligence, the Administrator must develop procedures minimizing the number of people with access to threat information. A restriction is allowed only if it does not reduce the Government’s ability to perform aviation-security duties, including notifying the public and crews. (g) Distribution. The guidelines must be distributed to appropriate officials of Transportation, State, Justice, and air carriers.