British bomb plot causes worldwide airline chaos
AFP, London
Air travel to and from Britain was plunged into chaos yesterday in the wake of the discovery of an suspected plot to blow up airlines on transatlantic flights. Many airlines said they were cancelling all flights to Britain and to the epicentre of the threat, London Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports. The inter-connected nature of international air travel meant the disruption was rippling out across the world. British anti-terrorist police said the plot involved explosives concealed in hand luggage, which led to security being beefed up at most of Britain's airports, a measure which was causing delays. British Home Secretary John Reid said police were confident that the main suspects in the plot "have been accounted for" but explained that the country's security alert had been raised to "critical" as a precautionary measure. As a result, passengers on flights from around the world which were still flying to Britain were subject to new restrictions and increased security checks. Hand luggage was banned, except for items such as baby food and some medicines. British Airways said it was cancelling all its short-haul flights on Thursday between Heathrow and other British and European cities as well as the Libyan capital Tripoli. It said it was also cancelling some of Thursday's domestic and shorthaul services in and out of Britain's second biggest airport, London's Gatwick. Lufthansa of Germany said it was pulling all flights to Britain until 1500 GMT. It said 22 flights and 3,041 passengers would be affected, but that it expected flights later in the day to go ahead as planned. Spain's Iberia said its service to Heathrow would be halted until at least 1200 GMT. Alitalia grounded all its flights to Britain and aviation authorities in the Netherlands said they were cancelling all flights to Heathrow until at least 1500 GMT. French airline Air France said it had cancelled its three morning flights from Paris to London due to the situation at Heathrow and was to review the situation at 1200 GMT. Six British-bound flights from the Mediterranean city of Nice -- four operated by British Airways and two by the low-cost carrier Easyjet -- were also scratched, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded, airport officials said. Turkish Airways said it was scrapping all of its flights to Heathrow and Greek carrier Olympic Airlines advised passengers travelling to Britain to expect cancellations. Airports in Denmark and Sweden also increased security and suspended flights to London.
| 
