Airlines can have passengers fill out simple forms at the airport or passengers may be asked for the information when making the reservation

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(CNN) -- It's the last thing travelers want to think about, but it may be one of the first questions they will be asked beginning next week: Whom should the airline contact in case of a disaster?

Beginning October 1, U.S. citizens traveling internationally will be asked to provide their airline with an emergency contact.

In most cases, passengers will be presented with a simple form asking for a name and telephone number of someone not traveling with them. Passengers are not required to provide the information and may elect not to. And the rule does not apply to non-U.S. citizens or to domestic U.S. flights.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of Transportation may eventually extend the rule to domestic flights, depending on how well it works.

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"It's sort of a gruesome thought," David Kraycraft, a passenger waiting at a Continental Airlines gate, told the Journal. "It's going to scare a lot of people who don't travel a lot."

The new law stems from the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. The State Department, which was responsible for notifying victims' families, did not get a passenger manifest for more than seven hours after the crash, according to the Journal, and even then it contained only last names and first initials.

As a result of those difficulties and problems notifying next-of-kin after other disasters -- including a 1995 American Airlines crash near Cali, Colombia -- Congress stepped in to design a law that would speed up the grim process.

The new rule also requires that airlines collect the full name of each U.S. citizen flying into or out of the country. Airlines are required to provide these enhanced manifests to the State Department within three hours of a crash.

"For example, with the Swissair 111 disaster that occurred earlier this month, the State Department had to notify the family of each U.S. victim of that crash," said Steve Okun of the U.S. Department of Transportation. "If this rule had been in place at that time, the State Department would've gotten that information quicker ... to notify the families faster."

The new Transportation Department rule doesn't specify how airlines should collect emergency contact information, according to the Journal. Most airlines are planning to have passengers simply fill out a form, preferring not to call any more attention than necessary to the ultimate risk of flying.

CNN TravelGuide Correspondent Stephanie Oswald contributed to this report.