Posted on 01/02/2004 6:24:23 PM PST by blam
Heathrow terror puzzle
· BA223 cancelled for second day running
· Tension between US and British authorities
· UN resolution may be at heart of alert
Owen Bowcott, Steven Morris and Andrew Clark
Saturday January 3, 2004
The Guardian (UK)
British Airways grounded a fully-booked flight to Washington for the second day running yesterday, and cancelled another flight to Saudi Arabia today, as signs emerged of transatlantic tension over anti-terrorist precautions imposed by the United States. The decision to cancel flight BA223 from Heathrow to Washington was taken less than two hours before scheduled takeoff, when many of the 300 passengers had already checked in.
Today's flight is also said to be in doubt, amid fears that flights to the US could be subject to security alerts, delays and cancellation for weeks.
Last night the airline said it had also cancelled today's scheduled flight from London to Saudi Arabia because of security fears. A spokeswoman said BA flight 263, due to leave Heathrow airport at 1335 GMT for Riyadh had been cancelled on the advice of the British government. The return flight was also cancelled.
The airline's next scheduled flight to Riyadh is on Monday and it said it would review the situation at the weekend.
On Thursday, flight BA223 to Washington was also prevented from leaving after advice from the Department for Transport's security section, Transec.
Warnings about an al-Qaida threat are believed to have been passed on from the US department of homeland security, which has blocked flights from France and Mexico in the past week.
The home secretary, David Blunkett, yesterday held talks with Tom Ridge, the US homeland security secretary, to discuss ways to minimise disruption on flights to America.
On New Year's Eve, BA223 did leave Heathrow but was intercepted by US air force F-16 fighters and escorted into Dulles airport, Washington.
At Dulles International yesterday, the airport's head of security, Charles Brady, was placed on administrative leave after his arrest on a drunken driving charge on Thursday as the airport was on a heightened state of alert, the transportation security administration said yesterday.
Precisely why BA223 to Washington is being targeted is a mystery. The persistent warnings suggest that some conversation between al-Qaida supporters has been overheard, or a message intercepted. One theory in aviation circles was that the threat to flight BA223 might relate to UN general assembly resolution 223 passed in 1997, which attacked the Israeli treatment of Palestinians on the occupied territories. The resolution, which is among several UN declarations regularly cited by Arab states, condemned Jewish settlements on the West Bank and the Gaza strip as "illegal" and "a major obstacle to peace".
Security experts said they were puzzled that passengers from yesterday's flight were being allowed to take alternative BA services to the US apparently without hindrance.
David Learmount, the safety editor of Flight International magazine, said: "We don't know whether the threat is about a flight number or a time of day, an airline or an destination. It's most likely to be a combination of those things."
About 100 of the 300 passengers booked on to flight 223 had checked in by the time it was cancelled. Most were Americans returning home.
They were greeted with a letter from BA's customer services manager, Declan Pollard, saying: "We have taken the decision to cancel due to security reasons following advice from her majesty's government."
· Spanish civil guards boarded an Easyjet plane bound for England and removed a passenger who had made comments about the end of the world just before it took off from Madrid on Thursday night. The man, from Chile, was later found to be carrying two penknives.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | Oklahoma | 31.00 |
1 |
31.00 |
199 |
0.16 |
116.00 |
9 |
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