The number of flight cancellations keeps growing. Just
heard that one from London to Riyadh, SA was just
cancelled......
British Airways Cancels Another Flight to D.C.
Friday, January 02, 2004
WASHINGTON — Yet another intercontinental commercial flight was canceled Friday as the U.S. government ratcheted up its vigilance against potential terrorism.
British Airways (search) Flight 223 from Heathrow Airport (search) in London to Washington was canceled Friday for the second time in three days on orders from the British government over some sort of intelligence information. Its return flight was also canceled. The flight was canceled less than two hours before takeoff and some of the 300 passengers had already begun to check in. Flight 223 was also delayed Wednesday night.
While the United States continues to operate at its second highest alert status, orange, authorities concerned about terrorism canceled or delayed four flights in 24 hours between London and Washington Dulles International Airport (search).
On Thursday, an Air France (search) plane from New York to Paris made an emergency stop in Canada because of security concerns, airport authorities said Friday.
The flurry of activity over New Year's took place a week and a half after the Bush administration raised the national terrorism alert to orange. No terrorist incidents have taken place.
Based on security advice from the British government, BA Flight 223, one of three daily flights to the U.S. capital, on Thursday canceled the same flight from London, and its return flight, that U.S. authorities had boarded on New Year's Eve after it landed at Dulles. U.S. authorities re-screened passengers on the Thursday night flight. That same flight was canceled again Friday following security advice from the British government, as was its Saturday return flight, Flight 222. That's a total of four cancellations and one delay.
U.S. authorities delayed the Wednesday flight scheduled to leave at 6:35 p.m. EST after passengers were "re-screened because of security concerns," said a Dulles airport official. U.S. officials acted on intelligence information and not just suspicious passenger names when they boarded the British Airways jet at Dulles, a national security official said.
Investigators found no evidence of terrorism as 247 passengers from London waited more than three hours before getting off the plane while some of them were questioned. Security personnel did weapons screening of passengers, and the plane was kept several hundred feet from the terminal during the questioning. The plane left shortly after 10 p.m. EST.
"We had concerns with individuals on the flight, but threat reporting information led us to make the decision to have the flight escorted," a national security official said.
FBI agents questioned a woman who appeared to be from the Middle East, asking her repeatedly why she was not traveling with her husband, one passenger said.
A Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News that DHS had "specific information about potential threats" to Flight 223, and they notified the British authorities.
But when asked why so many flights had been grounded recently, another U.S. official told Fox News that the government had received "unsubstantiated threat information" about flights coming into the country.
The official said that there was concern about British Airways Flight 223 but the threat information was not very specific. Another official described the information as "vague."
"We just don't know enough information to dismiss it, so when you have actionable intelligence -- even if unsubstantiated -- you move on it,'' the official said.
"We are taking whatever precautions necessary,'' the official said, adding that in the past few years, other flights have been delayed or canceled for similar reasons and did not receive the same level of media attention.
A statement on the British Airways Web site says it's expected all other flights will operate on a normal schedule on Friday.
Air France Screening 'Mistake?'
The U.S. government has ordered international airlines to put armed marshals on certain flights, and dispatched U.S. fighter jets to escort some incoming Air France flights, some news outlets reported Friday.
The Air France flight that made the emergency stop in Canada on New Year's Day with 260 passengers on board was on its way to Paris from New York when the pilot was told to land in Newfoundland, airport authorities said Friday.
After a comparison between luggage and passenger lists, authorities believed there was unaccompanied baggage on the plane. A search found nothing suspicious and the flight resumed four hours later.
Meanwhile, FBI officials said Friday some of the intelligence that led to the grounding of three Air France flights during Christmas week involved a terror plot involving a Tunisian who is named on the U.S. master terror watch list.
A name similar to the Tunisian's appeared on the manifest of one of the flights, but turned out to be a youth, FBI officials said. Interrogations of people with other names that concerned the FBI turned up nothing sinister, the officials said.
"We had a name connected with terror plot and it showed up on the manifest and we didn't have a full biographical information, so we take those precautions until you can assure yourself things are OK," a senior FBI official said.
The Wall Street Journal Europe reported Friday that the Air France groundings was a mistake.
The newspaper said the FBI gave French police a list of six suspects' names on Dec. 22 and information indicating militants linked to Al Qaeda (search) were planning to hijack an Air France jet.
Another "terrorist" was a Welsh insurance agent while a third was an elderly Chinese woman who once ran a restaurant in Paris, the newspaper said. The other three on the list were French citizens.
But a law enforcement official emphatically told Fox News that, "This was not a mistake."
The official said that when you spot a name that could be a match to a potential terrorist, you wait until the person shows up to determine who exactly the person is. "This was not a mistake," the official said. "This is the process."
The U.S. government also shared threat information with the Mexican government, which canceled a scheduled U.S.-bound flight from Mexico because of security concerns.
Agustin Gutierrez, Mexico's presidential spokesman, said Mexico did not receive convincing information for the cancellation.
"The question is what threat?" Gutierrez said. "This question must be answered by Homeland Security. If we are going to have a good climate of cooperation, the least that we can hope for are reasons."
Gutierrez also said the cancellation came after United States authorities said they would refuse to allow the plane to land, but Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse denied that.
Clamping Down on the Homefront
In Alaska, meanwhile, oil tankers on Thursday resumed loading at the terminal at Valdez, Alaska, which officials had closed down Tuesday.
The ships load Prudhoe Bay oil destined for the Lower 48 states at Valdez, the end of the 800-mile pipeline, which carries 17 percent of the nation's domestic oil supply.
Law enforcement personnel strengthened security last week in the Prince William Sound community after U.S. officials said Al Qaeda operatives could target remote sites such as oil facilities in Alaska. Officials also said then they could not corroborate a report about an Al Qaeda threat against the Valdez oil terminal.
Fox News' Mike Emanuel, Anna Stolley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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