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September 7, 2009 Mass murder at 30,000 feet: Islamic extremists guilty of airline bomb plot Philippe Naughton Three British Muslims were found guilty today of conspiracy to murder thousands of passengers and crew in an unprecedented airline bomb plot that could have proved as deadly as the 9/11 attacks. After a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court, jurors found the ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed, and two other men, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, guilty of plotting to use liquid bombs to blow up airliners en route from Heathrow to the United States. Another defendant, Umar Islam, was found guilty of a more...

(CBS4) BOSTON Criminal charges could be filed Thursday against a Vermont woman who caused a disturbance aboard a London-to-Virginia jet that was diverted to Logan Airport. 59-year-old Catherine Mayo is being held by federal authorities in Boston. Investigators say she was a claustrophobic passenger who became upset and interfered with the flight crew on United Airlines flight 923 Wednesday morning. The pilot declared an in-flight emergency and landed the plane at Logan. The Boeing 767 was escorted by two F-15 jets based out of Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod. Passengers say Mayo paced the aisles and peppered...

Entire South African Airways crew arrested for drug smuggling - TWICE in one month By SAM GREENHILL 17th February 2009 The entire crew of a South African Airways flight has been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling - for the second time in a month. Fifteen members of the flight crew, including the pilot, were detained yesterday at Heathrow airport after customs officers found five kilos of cocaine in a bag. They were being held by officers after the class A drug, with an estimated street value of £250,000, was discovered as the crew tried to clear customs following a...

The entire crew of a South African Airways flight have been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling - for the second time in a month. Fifteen members of the flight crew, including the pilot, were detained today at London's Heathrow after customs officers found five kilos of cocaine in a bag.  They were being held by officers after the class A drug, with an estimated street value of £250,000, was discovered as the crew tried to clear customs following a 12-hour flight from Johannesburg. Bob Gaiger, spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs, said the drugs were discovered after the...

LONDON (AFP) – The British government will give the green light on Thursday to plans to build a third runway at London's Heathrow airport, the world's biggest international air hub, the BBC reported. Martin Salter, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour party who has campaigned against the nine-billion-pound (13-billion-dollar, 10-billion-euro), said he also expected ministers to give the go-ahead. "I am expecting a decision tomorrow. I am expecting it to be the wrong decision, with the runway going ahead," he said Wednesday. The expansion plan has pitted environmental groups and local residents concerned about the increase in emissions...

RESIDENTS in a village that would be demolished to make way for a third Heathrow runway fear time has run out in their battle against the bulldozers. Sipson, which is already overshadowed by Britain's biggest airport, will be wiped off the map if the Government approves the expansion plan. The decision is only days away, but the people who live in Sipson's 700 homes are resigned to losing their fight. Mark Bridle, 38, a carpenter, said: "It seems like Gordon Brown is going to say yes to the runway, but people are never going to give up. I don't think...

Excerpt - Three men accused of plotting to use liquid bombs to blow up jets flying from Heathrow airport have been found guilty of conspiracy to murder. Of the eight people on trial over the alleged plot to attack transatlantic airliners, three were found guilty of one of the charges against them, four had no verdict given and one was acquitted. ~ snip ~

Terminal 5 came in for renewed criticism yesterday after it emerged that passengers transferring between planes at Heathrow's troubled new £4.3bn building are losing more than 900 bags a day. "Passengers will be surprised and disappointed to learn that there is still a one in 12 chance of losing their bags,"

An airline passenger claimed that a security guard threatened to arrest him because he was wearing a T-shirt showing a cartoon robot with a gun. Brad Jayakody, 30, from London, said he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 after his Transformers T-shirt was deemed 'offensive.' The IT consultant was set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf in Germany when he was pulled to one side. Brad Jayakody w Brad Jayakody wearing the Transformers T-shift which caused offence at Heathrow Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character...

An Afghan hijacker who forced an airliner to fly to Britain is now working at Heathrow, it has been disclosed. Nazamuddin Mohammidy, 34, was one of a gang of nine that threatened to blow up an internal flight in Afghanistan, along with 173 passengers and crew, unless they were granted political asylum. The Afghan hijackers forced the Boeing 727 to divert to Britain where they surrendered to police and the SAS after a 70-hour stand-off at Stansted Airport, Essex in Mohammidy, of Hounslow, Middlesex, is now working as an office cleaner for British Airways. The discovery came after he...

One of the nine Afghans who won the right to live in Britain after hijacking a plane is now working at Heathrow airport as a cleaner, it emerged last night. Nazamuddin Mohammidy was one of a group who took over an internal Afghan flight in 2000 and landed it in the UK, where they threatened to kill those on board unless they were granted asylum. Now it has emerged Mohammidy, 34, was recently arrested while driving a car around the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport. Police suspected he was an unlicensed cab driver but were stunned when checks revealed...

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...

LONDON (AP) - Sky News television reports supermodel Naomi Campbell has been arrested at Heathrow's terminal 5 for assaulting a police officer. A London Metropolitan Police spokesman says a woman was arrested at the terminal for on assault on police, but has refused to disclose her identity or give her age. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.

DOZENS of workers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 started to BRAWL just hours after it opened, it emerged last night. More than 30 baggage-handlers at the £4.3billion hub had to be pulled apart by security guards on Thursday. And the farce at the “world class” terminal continued yesterday as 72 more flights were scrapped, the ROOF started to LEAK and passengers JEERED staff. As rain dripped on their heads from a hole in the expensive panelled roof, tourists chanted: “You’re s*** and you know you are” at red-faced BA staff. Passenger Sandra Weber, 27, of Feldberg, Austria, raged: “It’s like being...

LONDON (AFP) - Flights began operating at Heathrow airport's new terminal on Thursday, slightly clouded by a few teething problems and a protest at the London air hub. Terminal Five, which cost 4.3 billion pounds and is the first addition to Heathrow in 20 years, was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II earlier this month. On Thursday the first flight to land was from Hong Kong, and while the British Airways aircraft landed 10 minutes ahead of schedule, some passengers reported delays while signs were also criticised. "It took an hour for our bags to come through from the time we...

nvestigators have determined that the British Airways Boeing 777-200ER which crashed on approach to London Heathrow last week had adequate fuel on board and that both engines continued to generate thrust, albeit much-reduced, during the event. Preliminary findings from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch had indicated that the aircraft’s Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines had failed to respond to an auto-throttle command for increased thrust during the final stage of the approach. In a newly-issued update, however, the AAIB says both engines did initially respond to the auto-throttle command, but that the starboard engine’s thrust reduced after about 3s and the...

THE pilot of the British Airways aircraft that crash-landed at Heathrow said he feared the flight would end in “catastrophe” as he struggled to cope with a double engine failure just two miles from touchdown. First Officer John Coward, 41, said both engines lost power simultaneously, leaving him with just seconds to bring the aircraft down. -- snip -- Investigators examining the wreckage of flight BA038 are now focusing on the theory that the crash was caused by a failure in the avionics and electronics systems that control the plane’s engines. . . . A senior industry source said: “....

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Two engines on the British Airways plane which crash landed at Heathrow "did not respond" to a demand for increased thrust about two miles from touchdown, an initial report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said Friday. The report describes the Boeing 777 hitting problems 600ft off the ground and descending rapidly but just making it onto Heathrow land The report says: "Initial indications from (crew) interviews and Flight Recorder analyses show the flight and approach to have progressed normally until the aircraft was established on late finals for Runway 27L. "At approximately 600ft and two...

The secret war On the North-West Frontier, soldiers are trying to tighten the noose around bin Laden's forces. But in Europe and America, there is no clear enemy to fight - yet every expert knows that a terrorist atrocity is coming Mark Townsend in Tangier, John Hooper in Madrid, Greg Bearup in Peshawar, Paul Harris in Washington, Peter Beaumont in Baghdad, Antony Barnett, Martin Bright, Jason Burke and Nick Pelham in London Sunday March 21, 2004 The Observer There were shadows in the rocks. As the 12 US Special Forces soldiers arrived at a remote mountain region in eastern Afghanistan...

Two Airplanes Collide at Heathrow Airport, London(AP) No details yet.

An environmental protester hugs a British police officer Saturday near London's Heathrow Airport. Organizers hope to attract as many as 1,500 people today to protest a proposed third runway at the airport and greenhouse gases released by air travel. LONDON — For the hundreds of climate-change activists who have camped out near Heathrow Airport for the past week, there is only one way to reduce the carbon footprint of aircraft: Stop flying so much. "Aviation is a luxury we can live without," said a protester named Merrick. Booming air travel, he said, is multiplying greenhouse gases just as the climate-change...

Heathrow protesters 'may stage bomb hoax' By David Millward, Transport Correspondent Last Updated: 7:38pm BST 13/08/2007 A hard core of anarchist demonstrators are drawing up plans to bring Heathrow to a standstill using an array of tactics including disguising themselves as ordinary holidaymakers to cause havoc in the airport terminals The Daily Telegraph has learned that protesters are smuggling smart clothes into the "climate camp" in an attempt to sidestep police and security staff and get into the terminals and office buildings. Protestors against a third runway at Heathrow set up camp There are also fears they could be planning...

Heathrow, England, 3 July (AKI) - Passengers said on Tuesday that Terminal 4 at London's Heathrow airport was being evacuated after a suspect package was found. Officials at the airport could not confirm that the terminal was being evacuated but said a suspect bag had been found, Reuters news agency reported. Flights departing from Terminal 4 are mainly operated by British Airways and by Dutch KLM, to European and long-haul destinations. Britain is on 'critical' security alert following last week's failed bombings at Glasgow airport and in central London, believed to be an-Qaeda plot. Security services fear a terror attack...

LONDON: Heathrow Airport's terminal 3 was closed Sunday night after a "suspect package" was found, airport authorities said. Airport operator BAA said in a statement that police were on the scene and "are working with airport staff to get the terminal reopened as soon as possible." Further details were not immediately available.

NEW YORK — One of the daughters of a man among four accused in a terror plot to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport and surrounding areas told FOX News Saturday that her father was "falsely arrested." Abdul Kadir, a Muslim and former member of Parliament in Guyana, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for "terrorist operations," according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity. Kadir's wife, Isha, said that her husband was nabbed while boarding a flight to Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a travel visa to attend an Islamic...

The Open Skies agreement between America and Europe has been hailed by airlines that see expansion opportunites outside their home continent. But airline unions see a threat to jobs. "Airlines need greater commercial freedom to run their businesses as real businesses," said Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of the International Air Transport Association. The Bush administration said Open Skies will create jobs, and United Airlines hailed the agreement, seeing expansion opportunity in Europe. Greg Davidowitch, president of the United Airlines master executive committee of the Association of Flight Attendants, disagrees. "These benefits are ambiguous, tenuous and will be short-lived at best," he...

LONDON (Reuters) - A group of British Muslims suspected of plotting to blow up U.S.-bound airliners flying from Britain had been radicalised in just weeks or months, London's police chief said on Wednesday. British detectives announced last August they had foiled a suicide bomb plot to blow up planes using liquid explosives. Officers have charged 15 people over the suspected plot with offences including conspiracy to murder and planning acts of terrorism. The suspects are due to go on trial next year. "One of the really shocking things ... is the apparent speed with which young, reasonably affluent, some reasonably...

The great Christmas standstill By David Millward, Transport Correspondent and Richard Holt Last Updated: 5:57pm GMT 22/12/2006 The misery has worsened for passengers at Britain’s airports today as freezing fog forced hundreds of domestic and European flights to be cancelled. A blanket of fog engulfs a runway at Heathrow People stranded at Heathrow woke from a few hours sleep slumped over café tables to hear the news that further flights had been cancelled. Whilst conditions are still predicted to be bad overnight, forecasts for the weekend have improved. British Airways plans to start operating domestic services in and out of...

Excerpt - Intelligence agencies have been warned that al Qaeda may be planning to attack air and rail travel in Europe in actions that may occur during the busy holiday travel season, CBS News has learned exclusively. In separate interviews with Arab and other intelligence sources, CBS News has been told that the warnings come from interrogations of al Qaeda suspects who recently left Afghanistan and Pakistan. "One suspect said plans for repeating the Heathrow attempt (a reference to the failed 'liquid bomb' plot interrupted in August) were all prepared. It is now a matter of taking action," said one...

A man is being questioned by police after a security alert forced the closure of part of Heathrow Airport.About 2,000 people were evacuated from Terminal Two after a suspect package was found in the check-in area. Police said they were looking into reports that a man had run up to a desk, dropped off a package and then fled. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "That is certainly a line of inquiry and CCTV is being checked." Passengers faced delays in entering the building as staff called travellers through flight-by-flight, prioritising those flights leaving first. As a result, queues built up...

heathrow evacuated - suspicious package - man seen placing package and running off ... only in german - can't find on bbc / sky this is AP via a Swiss Internet News Site

Mastermind of 9/11 had 'plot to hit Heathrow' By Duncan Gardham (Filed: 09/09/2006) The mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on America went on to plan a hijack plot to attack London, it was alleged yesterday. Ramzi bin al-Shibh was tasked by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to recruit operatives in Saudi Arabia for an attack on Heathrow Airport Four men in Saudi Arabia had already been recruited to fly aircraft into Heathrow airport when the plot was allegedly thwarted, according to United States sources. President George W Bush suggested that the Canary Wharf tower in London's Docklands might also have been...

The actress Lindsay Lohan victim of a flight to a million dollars LONDON - the American actress Lindsay Lohan was made conceal her hand Thursday bag with the London airport of Heathrow. The bag contained more than one million dollars of jewels, indicated a spokesman of the police force. According to the spokesman, the young actress realized that its hand bag had disappeared whereas it left terminal 1 of the airport. An investigation was open. Lindsay Lohan, 20 years, is one of the young actresses who go up to Hollywood. She lately played in the last Robert Altman, "A...

LONDON - British anti-terrorist police charged three more people late Tuesday with conspiring to commit murder in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners. The three — Mohammed Yasar Gulzar, Mohammed Shamin Uddin and Nabeel Hussain — were also charged with preparing to commit terrorism by helping in an alleged plan to smuggle explosives aboard the planes, police said. Eleven people have now been charged on those two counts. Four others were charged with lesser offenses, including having knowledge of a terrorist activity but not disclosing information about it. A Scotland Yard statement said Gulzar, Uddin and Hussain conspired...

MAYBE IT'S because I know I have to catch a transatlantic flight on Sept. 11. Maybe I'm just too fond of "What if?" historical questions. Whatever the reason, I can't get over how quickly the world has moved on since the exposure of the Heathrow bomb plot. Ever since the revelation that a terrorist ring intended "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," I've been finding it all too easy to imagine what it would have been like if the plotters had succeeded. We cannot assume, for obvious legal reasons, that the suspects who were charged in London are anything other...

A BRITISH Airways flight from London to New York turned around mid-flight and returned to London's Heathrow airport after a mobile phone started ringing, the airline said. "Flight BA179 has returned to Heathrow as a precautionary measure," a spokeswoman for BA told AFP. "A mobile phone was located on board the aircraft which none of the passengers appear to own." "The captain assessed the situation with the BA security team at Heathrow and it was decided that it was safe to continue. However, the captain decided to return to Heathrow as a precaution. "The captain explained his decision to the...

...a British Airways flight from Heathrow to New York has been turned back because a mobile phone - banned at the time - was on board. The British Airways flight was turned back after a mobile phone was heard ringing at the back of the plane. No one on board admitted owning the phone so flight BA179 with 217 passengers on board returned to Heathrow as a precautionary measure. A businessman who was among the passengers told BBC News 24: "When the plane took off a mobile phone started ringing. "One and a half hours later the captain made the...

PRAGUE, August 10, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The British authorities are in no doubt -- after an operation lasting several months, the security services have foiled an imminent terrorist attack. British Home Secretary John Reid said the security services had raised the threat level from "severe" to "critical," the highest possible level, which, according to the website of MI5, the British Security Service, means an attack is expected soon. "The police, with the full knowledge of ministers, have carried out a major counterterrorism operation to disrupt what we believe to be a major threat to the United Kingdom and international partners,"...

POLICE and the security services today foiled an airline terror plot – described by one police chief as a bid to cause "untold death and destruction"... Muslim MP Shahid Malik (Dewsbury), a member of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: "I think it is very disturbing that it appears that those suspected are citizens of this country. "The point that we have been making is that we have become too relaxed about this. That is not to say we have got to start a panic, but we do need to remain vigilant and people need to contact police if...

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Thursday they have thwarted a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States, arresting a number of people in the London area. Britain's security service MI5 raised the threat level to the country to "critical" from "severe," meaning an attack is expected imminently. News of the arrests and heightened security threat came amid high international tension over Israel's war against Hizbollah in Lebanon. Police said the aim of the plot was to detonate bombs smuggled on board aircraft in hand luggage. "A major terrorist plot to allegedly blow...

Once, flying was an exotic experience; now, not only is it mundane, but the damage it does to the environment is insupportable Before the environment was invented as a cause, we had to make do with High Tory bigotry to protect us from error. Appalled at the prospect of proles enjoying democratic travel, John Ruskin mused on the rapacious penetration of a railway into the hitherto virgin Peak District. He boomed that the sole advantage to be gained from this 'progress' was that every fool in Birmingham could be in Buxton and every fool in Buxton could be in...

White House Releases Information On Al-Qaida Plots 3 Foiled Attacks Aimed At Targets Inside U.S. POSTED: 9:00 am EDT October 6, 2005 UPDATED: 11:22 pm EDT October 6, 2005 WHITE HOUSE -- The White House has released information about 10 al-Qaida plots that President George W. Bush says the U.S. and its allies have foiled in the last four years. Three plots cited were in the United States. They included plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack both the West and the East coasts. The third involved plans to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. Also, the...

A suspect sample of the deadly avian flu virus went missing A suspect sample of the avian flu virus from dead Romanian birds went missing for at least 24 hours and possibly two days at Heathrow. It was flown in by British Airways but when security couriers arrived to collect the package, it could not be found. BA began an investigation and said there was no health risk. If avian flu develops into a human flu virus, a pandemic could cause losses of $800 billion (£460 billion) in a year — 2 per cent of global gross domestic product —...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The disclosure to reporters of the arrest of an al-Qaida computer expert allowed several wanted suspects from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terror network to escape, government and security officials said Tuesday. AP Photo   Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani computer engineer, was nabbed in a July 13 raid in the eastern city of Lahore. He then led Pakistani authorities to a key al-Qaida figure and cooperated secretly by sending e-mails to terrorists so investigators could trace their locations. His arrest was first reported in American newspapers on Aug. 2 after it was...

AL-QAEDA terrorists planned to hijack a passenger jet from eastern Europe and fly it into a packed terminal at Heathrow airport, killing hundreds of people, security sources have revealed. The plot, which was taken so seriously that ministers considered shutting down the airport, helps to resolve the long-standing mystery of why Tony Blair ordered armoured vehicles and hundreds of troops to be sent to Heathrow in 2003. It has now emerged that MI5 received detailed intelligence in February 2003 about a two-pronged plan to target Britain because of its decision to send troops in support of America’s invasion of Iraq....

....On the day after the failed July 21 bombings in London, an Indian court in Delhi sentenced Mohammed Afroze to seven years in prison for his participation in a wider plot which had been planned for September 11, 2001. Afroze led another al Qaeda cell which planned to use commercial airlines as missiles to destroy several international targets. The Islamist terrorists intended to send a global message through coordination with the attacks on America. Their plan failed when the terrorists lost their nerve and fled Heathrow. ....AFROZE HAS ALSO ADMITTED to targeting the Rialto Towers in Melbourne, Australia. Australia has...

Navy Probing How Man Boarded U.S. Carrier ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy is investigating how a man was able to sneak on board an American aircraft carrier in port in England last month. On April 9, the man made it past British and American security at Portsmouth, then apparently onto a liberty boat that was transporting people to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The vessel was not connected by a walkway to land, Navy officials said. The man was detained by members of the carrier's security force after he came on board, said Lt. Mike...

NORFOLK — The Navy is investigating how a man managed to get on board the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman without authorization while the Norfolk-based ship was visiting Britain on April 9. The Truman’s security force discovered the intruder while in port at a naval base in Portsmouth, in southern England; British police removed him. "After his discovery, the ship’s security conducted a search of surrounding areas and found no suspicious packages or damage," said Cmdr. Dave Werner, a spokesman for the 2nd Fleet here. While the ship, which returns to Norfolk on Monday, had not been open for public...

A poison attack planned by al-Qa'eda-trained operatives was aimed at the busy Heathrow Express rail link and would have been "our September 11", the Metropolitan Police has revealed. A plot to bring death and terror to the country was disclosed last week after Kamel Bourgass, 32, an Islamic extremist from Algeria, was convicted at the Old Bailey and jailed for 17 years. Senior Whitehall officials have told The Telegraph that Bourgass and some of his associates intended to target the busy rail link between central London and Heathrow Airport. The plan was to place ricin, a fast-acting and potentially lethal...

Wed 13 Apr 2005 9:47am (UK) Naval Security Reviewed over Ship Intruder By Ben Mitchell, PA A review of security at a major UK naval base has been carried out after an alleged intruder was found on board a visiting US aircraft carrier, the Royal Navy said today. The alleged trespasser was discovered on board the USS Harry S Truman, anchored off Stokes Bay, Gosport, Hants, on Saturday night during a week-long visit to Portsmouth Naval Base. A navy spokesman said the man had allegedly passed through both Royal Navy security and US Navy security to get on board passenger...