Why has Flight 223 been disrupted?
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Numerous BA flights have been canceled or delayed in recent weeks.
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European flights to U.S. face new new terror threats.
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LONDON, England (AP) -- Passengers recently booked on British Airways Flight 223 have particular experience of the new risks of traveling in a nervous world.
The mid-afternoon flight from London to Washington's Dulles International Airport has been delayed or canceled at least eight times this year because of U.S. security alerts. Another time, passengers were interrogated and prevented for hours from disembarking after landing at Dulles.
Why Flight 223 and not BA's other two daily flights to Washington? Why the disruptions to other services from London and Paris?
The U.S. authorities speak of a "specific and credible threat." But some officials in Europe suggest that the Americans are jumping at shadows.
"Their reflex is to open the umbrella" at the mere hint of rain, said one senior French official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Air France canceled a flight from Paris to Washington on February 1 and scrubbed the same service the following day.
In Britain, a pilots' union has expressed concern over the "erratic" nature of the intelligence leading to the cancelations.
"It is the sort of thing that feeds public disquiet rather than resolves the concern of passengers, pilots and the UK industry as a whole," said Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association, which represents some 90 percent of Britain's 9,200 commercial pilots.
Security experts, however, say the jitters are well-founded.
"We know that al Qaeda is particularly interested in attacking civil aviation," said Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
"The Americans and other countries in the coalition against terrorism are understandably taking that problem very seriously."
Regarding cancelations on February 1 and 2, U.S. Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said there was "specific and credible intelligence information suggesting that al Qaeda would attack these flights on those dates," adding that "it wasn't as specific as to method of attack."
British Airways canceled Flight 223 from London's Heathrow airport to Washington Dulles on February 1 and 2, as well as Flight 207 from Heathrow to Miami on February 1.
On Thursday, BA said Flight 223 would not fly on the coming Sunday, February 15. Monday's Flight 263 from London to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia also was scrapped.
On December 31, Flight 223 was kept on the tarmac at Washington Dulles for several hours after landing, while U.S. authorities questioned passengers and crew. BA scratched the same service -- one of its three daily flights to the U.S. capital -- the following two days.
The same BA service was also delayed for U.S.-requested checks for around three hours on January 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Officials in Britain have not said why BA Flight 223 has been a particular source of security concerns.
London's Daily Mail newspaper conjectured -- without offering proof -- that the flight was targeted because 223 is the number of a U.N. General Assembly resolution passed in 1997 that condemns Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.
Chris Yates, aviation security analyst with Jane's Information Group, said no theory about Flight 223 was particularly convincing.
Also during the Christmas holiday period, Air France canceled three flights from Paris to Los Angeles, two on December 24 and one on December 25.
French investigators questioned seven men pointed out by U.S. intelligence who had tickets for one of the canceled flights to Los Angeles, French authorities said; all were released after questioning.
French officials also said they found no evidence that a passenger who failed to show up for one of the canceled Christmas Eve flights might be an Afghan-trained al Qaeda sympathizer.
Senior French security officials say the fears over the Christmas flights originated from the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security, not the FBI or CIA. They suggested that the new department, less experienced than the two other agencies, was overcautious.
French police officials have said that errors in spelling and transcribing Arabic names led to mistakes. One suspicious name on a passenger list turned out to be a 5-year-old, while another belonged to a prominent Egyptian scientist, said Pierre Debue, director of the French border police.
But a French official speaking on condition of anonymity also said the intelligence from the United States that there was a threat to the Christmas flights appeared well-founded.
Wilkinson agreed that the U.S. fears should be taken seriously in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks: "The American authorities do not do this on a whim, but for very strong reasons.
"In addition to suicide hijacking, there are other ways in which al Qaeda can attack," Wilkinson said, mentioning the attempt by shoe-bomber Richard Reid to set off explosives on a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001.
"There have been fears that terrorists might use some kind of poisonous gas on board an aircraft, or surface-to-air missiles. These are not imaginary apprehensions," Wilkinson said.
In November 2002, two missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter airliner taking off from the airport in Mombasa, Kenya. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attempt.
Copyright 2004 The
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