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Terror scare creates airline havoc Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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UPDATED AT 2:07 AM EST Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004
Terror scare creates airline havoc
By PAUL KORING
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Washington — Fearing a murky terrorist plot to crash jetliners into buildings or blow them up over Washington or Los Angeles, U.S. security agencies continued to divert and cancel incoming flights Friday, while armed warplanes shadowed or intercepted other aircraft.
Suspicion has focused on a specific British Airways flight to Washington, which was cancelled for a second consecutive day. But other flights also have been affected, including an Air France jet ordered to land in Newfoundland early Friday morning and an AeroMexico flight to Los Angeles that has been cancelled twice in three days.
Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group headed by fugitive Osama bin Laden, has a history of conducting spectacular and simultaneous attacks, and at least one independent British military analyst said two terrorist cells were believed to be planning twin attacks.
“There is good and precise intelligence that there is more than one al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-like group operating against the United States,” said Paul Beaver, director of the London-based Ashbourne Beaver Associates.
“One is based in Central America and the other is based in Europe — in London or Paris,'' he told Agence France-Presse.
Although U.S. officials have refused to release any details of the suspected plots, they raised the country's terror threat alert to “orange” (the second-highest level) just before Christmas, and have ordered foreign governments to be ready to put armed agents on selected flights headed to or flying over the United States. Those that refuse face revocation of landing or airspace transit rights.
Mr. Beaver's assessment matches the pattern of flight cancellations and delays since Christmas Eve. Washington, Los Angeles and possibly Las Vegas seem the most likely targets.
Three Air France flights to Los Angeles from Paris were cancelled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since then, several other Los Angeles-bound Air France flights have been shadowed as they crossed the country by U.S. warplanes armed with air-to-air missiles. And two AeroMexico flights from Mexico City to Los Angeles were cancelled this week.
Other flights have also been tailed by U.S. F-16s and F-15s, although only those spotted in daylight by passengers have been confirmed.
Meanwhile, there has been a special focus on British Airways Flight 223, one of the carrier's three daily trips between London and the Washington area.
Wednesday, nearly 250 passengers were kept on their arriving Boeing 777 at a remote part of Washington's Dulles airport for three hours while Federal Bureau of Investigation agents questioned everyone aboard.
For the next two days, both the inbound flight to Washington and the return to London were cancelled by the airline, acting on a request from the British government, which had been alerted by U.S. intelligence agencies. Friday's cancellation came mid-afternoon in London, after many of the passengers had checked in.
British Airways also cancelled another flight with a similar number — BA 263, which was headed for Riyadh Saturday — and said subsequent flights to the Saudi capital might also be scrapped.
An overnight Air France flight from New York to Paris landed just after midnight in Gander, Nfld., after a post-takeoff check indicated that there was unaccompanied baggage on board. The flight resumed after a bag was taken off the plane.
Although flights have occasionally been cancelled, delayed or intercepted by U.S. warplanes since the hijacking of domestic flights on Sept. 11, 2001, the focus over the past 10 days has been on flights originating from foreign cities bound for U.S. airports. Al-Qaeda was known to have plotted to hijack as many as 10 airliners on international routes bound for the United States in the mid-1990s.
In addition to giving certain flights and routes particular scrutiny, U.S. intelligence agencies have also alerted authorities in other countries of a list of names apparently linked to the latest suspected terrorist plot.
At least nine passengers boarding Air France flights have been closely questioned, although French authorities said variations in spellings of some of the names have fingered some unlikely suspects on passenger lists, including a five-year-old boy, an eminent Egyptian scientist and an elderly Chinese woman.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has praised co-operation from foreign governments, but at least some officials from those countries have voiced irritation over Washington's demands for armed agents to fly aboard incoming flights, as well as the cancellations.
Mexico's presidential spokesman said the government had cancelled AeroMexico's flight Friday only after Washington threatened to withhold clearance.
"What threat?" said Agustin Gutierrez. "This question must be answered by Homeland Security. If we are going to have a good climate of co-operation, the least that we can hope for are reasons."
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