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| If you don't make a donation to Free Republic, then that's one more thing you have in common with Patrick Leahy. |
Posted on 01/03/2004 3:21:16 PM PST by Pokey78
More flights from British airports are expected to be cancelled this week as MI5 and Special Branch hunt two al-Qa'eda terrorists thought to be planning a shoe-bomb attack on an airliner.
It was this threat that led to last week's cancellation, two days running, of British Airways flight 223 from Heathrow to Washington.
Officials from the security service MI5 believe that two Islamist terrorists are at large in Britain and planning to detonate a bomb in a lavatory of an aircraft.
Flight 223 was finally due to take off last night, but government officials on both sides of the Atlantic gave warning that further cancellations were expected this week - especially if "specific intelligence" pointed to a likely target.
BA flights to and from the Saudi capital Riyadh scheduled for yesterday and today have already been cancelled on the advice of British officials. Security officials say that the main threat comes from an al-Qa'eda pair said to be planning to blow up aircraft in mid-air using a shoe bomb or similar device.
Last January, a British man, Richard Reid, was jailed for life in the United States for trying to detonate a shoe bomb on a Paris-Miami flight.
Improved cockpit security and the widespread use of armed air marshals have made a hijack attempt less likely than a mid-air blast, which could be timed to go off when the aircraft is over a city.
One senior Whitehall official said: "There is a genuine security risk. We believe from reliable foreign intelligence sources that there are terrorists in Britain preparing to board planes and set off shoe bombs, almost certainly in a lavatory. We expect to have to cancel quite a few flights during the coming week."
British security officials played down speculation in the US media that the BA cancellations were linked to the flight number. It has been suggested that the significance of Flight 223 may relate to United Nations resolution 223, passed in 1997, which criticised the Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
One US official, meanwhile, said the cancellation of the BA flights was not a specific response to safety fears, but was prompted by the refusal of some British pilots to fly with air marshals on board. Washington says it will not allow suspicious flights into its air space without armed marshals on board.
A BA spokesman said, however: "There is no truth in American press reports that a number of our flights have been grounded because pilots have refused to fly with marshals. The flights have been halted for security reasons."
Kevin Rosser, an analyst with Control Risks Group, an international security and risk-assessment firm, said: "The security services have been increasingly concerned in recent months about the threat to aviation, particularly over the holiday period.
"The Americans have been getting a surge of intelligence chatter. They are particularly concerned about cross-Atlantic routes and flights coming into the US from Mexico."
America remains on Code Orange alert - the second highest level of a five-tier system - which was brought in on December 21.
It is the first time since May that an alert as high as orange has been introduced, and in the past month at least 15 flights have been cancelled because of security concerns.
Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, said yesterday that the cancellations of flights to Washington and Riyadh had been prompted by "specific information".
Mr Darling, interviewed on BBC radio, said: "The reason that different flights are either grounded or there is increased security varies from time to time. Of course, Britain and the United States have access to similar intelligence and we share information.
"We do so with other countries as well. You would expect us to do that.
"We look at the intelligence ourselves, we evaluate it, and we then decide what the appropriate action is."
He added: "The threat we now face is likely to endure for many years."
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| If you don't make a donation to Free Republic, then that's one more thing you have in common with Patrick Leahy. |
And I'm not paying, so if any of our British friends can pull it up, please post it!
The turbulence from a plane that took off shortly before American Airlines flight 587 could have been a factor in the crash, investigators said Tuesday. At least 262 people died when the aircraft went down while en route from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. According to the jet's cockpit voice recorder, recovered from the crash site in Rockaway, a rattle emanates from the plane's mainframe before the jet is in the air two minutes, said National Transportation Safety Board Member George Black. Ten seconds later - when flight 587 has been aloft 114 seconds -- the pilot is heard commenting on encountering a "wake effect." The wake was from a Japan Airways Boeing 747 that had taken off minutes earlier, Black said.
Then, the recorder transmits the sound of a second rattle. At 127 seconds, there are comments suggesting loss of control in the aircraft, Black said.
One thing we can all be sure of.
Marion Blakey new head of the NTSB, doesn't know a tinkers damn about airplanes or investigating aircraft accidents.
This hack snake in the grass has absolutely no aviation experience, yet she goes in front of the cameras with her NTSB jacket on like she's some kind of expert and then states that there was "no evidence of terrorism".
This is exactly a lie, there is lots more evidence from eyewitness accounts and the unprecedented mid-air break up of the plane to suggest terrorism than there is to suggest mechanical failure.
The real NTSB investigators, in response to reporters questions, have repeatedly stated that they CANNOT RULE OUT TERRORISM.
The NTSB with her at it's head has lost all credibility.
It is never easy for the incoming head of the nation's lead safety agency, but Marion Blakey faces perhaps the toughest on-the-job training in the history of the National Transportation Safety Board.
A career Washington bureaucrat and lobbyist, Blakey was sworn in as the NTSB's chairwoman Sept. 26, barely 2 weeks after terrorists brought down four passenger jets.
Flight 587 was brought down by a shoe bomb, and the NTSB lied.
Those 262 civilized human beings deserve better than that.
They were victims of the terrorists, and should be recognized as such.
Kudos to the security workers! Keep up the good work.
I, myself, having to go through the dredges of FBI background checks and fingerprinting annually to maintain my ramp pass at an airport was very pleased when I was given the opportunity to take the employee line for flight security when taking a commercial flight which consisted of me and just one person behind me in line, and found that after swiping my security card to show my validation, still had to remove my shoes for security inspection.
Better safe than sorry IMHO!
Having to show my lack of prowess in darning of my socks, was a well worth obligation to give me peace of mind during my flight.
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