Security fears ground BA flights

[PartTimePongo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3481725.stm

British Airways has cancelled flights to the US and Saudi Arabia amid fears terrorists may be targeting them.
The airline has cancelled flights BA223 to Washington DC on Sunday and BA263 to Riyadh on Monday.

The move follows the cancellation of a number of US flights by BA and Air France at the start of February.

At the time, The US Department of Homeland Security said that it remained "concerned about al-Qaeda's desire to target international aviation".

With the news that KLM and Air France have merged to form an airline of extraordinary magnitude, how long will it be, before we see warnings issued for potential terrorism on KLM and AF?

Face it BritAir, they are not going to stop, until you are either

a. Out of business
b. Forced into a merger with a US carrier.

 

[Ivor_Corker]

PTP,

Believe you have to read between the lines with this one. Historically if one could call the time post 911 historical, the mid day Trans-long has always been targeted - plausible reason would have to be it's arrival time on the eastern seaboard - early evening, which would open up a variety options and not for dicussion here.

It has already been declared that the source IS reliable but if this is in fact true, I'm surprised that that particular source is still in existence. How long before the fundamentalist two two's put this together, "source and plug" the leak themselves. Could it be that there are any number of splinter cells operating independently of GCHQ (as was the case pre-911), in which case we realistically, have no option but to act on the information received.

If this is not the case (and each cell is uncontrolled), then I don't believe we would have the timely intel available to stop a major / catastrophic incident. I think we all believe it is just a matter of time before something awful happens. Which leaves us with no alternative but to keep hard targeting

As far as any "merger" is concerned - hey we're half way there. Well Nigel (when they're not stopped at Threshers), will climb into bed with anyone!

Ivor

 

[SanFrancisco49ers]

"US jumping at shadows"

This Brit pilot has it about right.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_865434.html?menu=news.latestheadlines

 

[Whiskybreath]

All probably a result of BA's ridiculous pricing - some hacked off expat getting his own back. Stick with Emirates, I say!

 

[One_of_the_strange]

Hey, if I was a dodgy sort all I'd do would be send a load of emails with flight times in them and wait for the spams to pick them up and panic. Result, loads of fear, panic and confusion for no real effort whatsoever. Meanwhile the single thing that I am planning gets lost in the noise.

And moreover if I wouldn't discuss details of what I was planning via email, I'd just think of a simple innocuous code and no-one would be any the wiser. I mean, do people think Osama would have sent email to the crew that did 9/11 saying "Fly the jets into the WTC and kill them all ha ha ha ! love OBL". An email saying "have a good trip tomorrow" would suffice and be impossible to spot.

 

[PartTimePongo]

Flights suspended again yesterday and today. Wonder what BA's share price is doing at the moment?

 

[jash]

why always information relating to BA I find it hard that BA and BA alone are being singled out, what about the american airlines

 

[ViroBono]

Presumably Phoney Bliar's policy of fighting terrorism by allowing just about anyone to come here and remain despite overwhelming evidence of terrorist links, makes US Intelligence (a tautology, surely) twitchy.

 

[jash]

aye but how come the us flights form heathrow never get cancealled

 

[vespa]

Presumably Phoney Bliar's policy of fighting terrorism by allowing just about anyone to come here and remain despite overwhelming evidence of terrorist links, makes US Intelligence (a tautology, surely) twitchy.

i have just read the sun and blair is on the top of the Al Qaida hit list

 

[jash]

i have just read the sun

so it must be true then