Al Qaeda threat grounds flights

11.45am

LONDON - British Airways and Air France have cancelled seven flights to and from the United States after US officials say they have new intelligence pointing to an al Qaeda plot to target the planes.

The officials gave only sketchy information on the new intelligence, which again raised fears of possible September 11-style attacks on US targets.

A US official said on Saturday Washington had intelligence that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network may be targeting five or six US-bound flights from Europe.

"There are a handful of flights we are concerned about, and British Airways has cancelled about half of them," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"We have received threat reporting that indicates al Qaeda's desire to target these particular flights."

The intelligence enabled US authorities to identify flights potentially at risk, but the official said further details were not available.

US security officials alerted the countries and airlines involved and it was up to them whether to cancel the flights or step up in-flight security, he said.

British Airways said it had cancelled flight BA223 to Washington on Sunday and Monday, and the return BA222 flights to London on the same days.

Sunday's BA207 London to Miami flight was also cancelled.

"We cancelled these flights on advice from the UK government for security reasons," a spokeswoman for the airline said, without giving details.

Air France scrapped two Paris-Washington flights.

"We confirm that for reasons of safety we have cancelled flight number 026 to Washington on February 1 and the same flight on February 2," an Air France spokeswoman said.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France's TF1 TV station: "We have been for several months in an extremely tense international environment...Air France has thus decided to take necessary measures and suspend the flights, I think it's a wise decision."

SKY MARSHALS

Al Qaeda is held responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States involving four hijacked commercial airplanes. About 3,000 people were killed in those attacks.

US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has said the US government consistently receives intelligence that al Qaeda is still interested in using aircraft, particularly commercial airplanes, to carry out an attack.

In December Washington raised its terror alert to the second-highest level and asked British Airways and Air France to cancel several US-bound flights, including flight BA223.

US authorities also asked foreign airlines to put armed marshals on some flights and dispatched fighter jets to escort some incoming planes.

Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal were firmly against the air marshal proposals, EU officials have said. But France and Britain said they were ready to accept them in some cases.

"New threats like those that we experienced at the end of last year, we take these threats seriously and you need within the framework of terrorism prevention to be meticulous, very vigilant in liaison with airlines, that is Air France and British Airways," Villepin said.

Adding to the jitters on Saturday was a scare on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York that had to be turned back when a burning smell was detected in the cabin.

The airline said it had probably been due to a technical fault. The plane returned safely to Heathrow.

Air France also cancelled Philadelphia-bound Flight 378 on Saturday but it was for operational, not security, reasons, a spokeswoman said.

- REUTERS