LONDON - The lobster was served on the finest bone china and the Krug champagne poured into crystal flutes but, when the passengers picked up their cutlery, they saw how much had changed since Concorde last roared into the skies.
As 100 VIPs sat down for lunch at 60,000ft in chic Connolly leather cradle seats on flight BA001, they ate, not with hallmarked silver, but with the very best in heat-moulded plastic - the anti-terror alternative.
The iconic aircraft was scheduled to leave Heathrow for New York last night in a triumphal return to the skies, 16 months after an Air France Concorde crashed in Paris, killing 113.
British Airways claims the revamped jet is the world's safest and most stylish - a post-modern haven of leather, aluminium and cashmere. But, whereas a couple of months ago the £14 million ($46.42 million) makeover of BA's supersonic fleet might have been hailed with a Hello!-style publicity blitz, the September 11 attacks have added a sobering ingredient.
Security for the return of BA's flagship, with its Kevlar-lined fuel tanks and reinforced tyres, was among the tightest for an aircraft taking off from British soil.
The plastic cutlery was just one in a battery of checks and controls to ensure the safety of Concorde, which aviation experts say is a "classic target" for terrorists.
A series of embarrassing lapses at British and foreign airports in recent weeks have heightened concern that the aviation industry could still prove attractive for terrorism.
In the latest incident, British police arrested four men arriving home at Gatwick Airport from the United States after Customs officials found knives, a stun gun and other weapons in their luggage.
One of the men claimed the weapons were for self-defence. They included a combat knife, pepper spray, a stun gun and sets of knuckle-dusters.
The items were in luggage checked in to the plane's cargo hold at Orlando Sanford International Airport, Florida.
An airport spokesman said US airlines did not examine every bag checked for transport in the cargo hold. Luggage was opened or x-rayed on a random basis.
More embarrassing for US airport security was last week's incident at Chicago's O'Hare Airport when a man passed through several checks with a stun gun, seven knives and teargas in his hand luggage.
BA insists security measures for the Concorde will be "exceptionally stringent". Patrols have been increased outside Heathrow Airport, where the three refitted Concordes are kept, and renewed checks made on the backgrounds of maintenance and ground crew. Passengers are subjected to extra body searches at boarding gates and hand luggage is put through x-ray and sniffer checks.
Despite the compromise of using picnic equipment to eat lunch on the £6819 return flight to New York, BA has received £20 million in advance bookings for the daily trip to the Big Apple.
In the US, airport and port authorities are continuing to tighten security, launching a recruitment drive for airport security staff and deploying armed National Guard soldiers to the Port of Miami, the world's busiest cruise port.
Guards will help security teams to screen passengers and baggage and reinforce perimeter security.
More than 50,000 reserve and National Guard troops have been activated for homeland defence as the US bombs Afghanistan in pursuit of suspected terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden.
But in California, officials were accused of overreacting by warning last week of possible attacks on the Golden Gate Bridge and other bridges. They conceded yesterday that the threat, based on uncorroborated information, was not credible.
In other news:
* Republican Michael Bloom-berg, the billionaire media mogul, defeated Democrat Mark Green in a tight race for Mayor of New York City.
Bloomberg will succeed Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican barred from seeking a third term, and take charge of the efforts to rebuild New York.
* The Queen, commenting on the war against terrorism for the first time, condemned extremists bent on stirring up hatred in Britain and said terrorism should never be allowed to succeed. Welcoming Jordan's King Abdullah and Queen Rania to Britain, the Queen thanked him for persuading others that the campaign was not against Islam.
Quoting Conservative political theorist Edmund Burke, she said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
* Indonesian police are investigating whether a grenade attack on the Australian International School in Jakarta was linked to anti-Western sentiment over the war in Afghanistan. Windows were blown out and a parking lot damaged when two men on a motorbike hurled the grenade over the school's fence.
* The worldwide anthrax scare extended to the edge of Siberia when the US consulate in Yekaterinburg confirmed it had received mail tainted with anthrax.
* Germany offered up to 3900 troops to support the US-led campaign, including special forces, naval forces, air transport, medical services and help in combating nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
* The Pentagon denied reports of a US helicopter crash in southwestern Pakistan, with the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, saying: "There was no helicopter shot down."
Provincial Pakistani officials told CNN that a helicopter crashed on Sunday as it was returning to Dalbandin air base.
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
Story archives:
Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
Stringent security as Concorde returns
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