My boss texted me last night saying that he is still stuck at Heathrow Airport. He was suppose to board a plane to Munich, Germany for another meeting about 9 hours ago!!!
Now he and the rest of the business team are stranded at Heathrow Airport where all incoming and outgoing flights were being cancelled due to terrorist bomb threat.
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News update from Today Online
Britain says foiled 'mass murder' plot to blow up planes
Friday • August 11, 2006
Air travellers around the globe faced delays after Britain said it had thwarted a plot to wreak "mass murder" by simultaneous mid-air bombings, triggering heightened security measures.
Some 24 people were arrested on Thursday, most of them in London and surrounding areas, over the alleged plot to smuggle in hand baggage seemingly innocuous liquids onto planes bound for the United States that would be assembled into bombs.
Britain immediately raised its security alert was raised to "critical" -- the highest of five levels -- and imposed severe restrictions on what passengers are allowed to bring into plane cabins.
The new security measures caused widespread delays in boarding aircraft, forcing many airlines to cancel flights.
More than 600 British flights were cancelled, airports operator BAA told AFP.
The airline information company OAG told The Guardian that around 400,000 people in Britain had been affected by the ensuing chaos.
Many passengers using London's Heathrow airport as a transit point were told that they would have to wait until the weekend, or even the beginning of next week, before they would be able to catch connecting flights.
The Guardian reported that nearby hotels were filled up with stranded passengers, citing an unnamed British Airways source, who told the newspaper passengers may have to stay as far away as the coastal town of Brighton, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from London.
Eurostar, which operates trains that run through the English Channel to Paris and Brussels, said the London-Paris route sold out on Thursday and there was limited availability for the next few days, The Times reported.
British and US authorities suggested the operation had been on the point of being carried out.
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said it bore the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and indicated that bombs had been recovered at the homes of the arrested suspects.
"Since we did not have an opportunity to study the bombs before we took them under arrest and because it will take time to analyze what they have done, the prudent course was to prevent any kind of liquid that might be harbouring an explosive device coming in," he said in an interview on CNN.
British police declined to comment on whether or not bombs had been found.
At least two media outlets also reported that between five and ten individuals suspected of being involved in the plot were still at large and being hunted by police, a report London's Metropolitan Police declined to confirm.
British media outlets cited police sources as saying they had apprehended all known suspects.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, US President George W. Bush said the alleged plot showed the United States remained "at war with Islamic fascists" nearly five years after the September 11, 2001 suicide plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
British Home Secretary John Reid said the alleged plotters had aimed to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions."
"Whilst the police are confident that the main players have been accounted for, neither they nor the government are in any way complacent," he added.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said the British premier, on holiday in the Caribbean, had briefed Bush. The White House said the president had known as early as Sunday of the plot.
Britain's domestic Press Association quoted senior police sources as saying they believed up to nine planes were to have been blown up in a simultaneous attack. Other British media said from five to 12 planes were to be targeted.
A US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plot targeted United, American Airlines and Continental Airlines, but possibly non-US carriers as well.
He said the destination of the targeted flights included cities that were "primary tourist attractions," such as New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago.
Chertoff said the plot involved attackers carrying components of the bombs in the form of liquid explosives and detonating devices disguised as drinks, electronic devices or other common objects.
British police declined to confirm the use of liquid explosives.
Chertoff said the arrests had "significantly disrupted this major threat," adding that the plot had been in the "final stages" of planning and that Washington would not drop its guard, although there was no indication of plotting inside the United States.
Deputy Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the London police's anti-terror branch, said police took "urgent action" overnight because the operation had reached a "critical point", but did not elaborate.
Airport authorities around the world tightened security measures on passengers and luggage travelling to and from Britain and the United States, causing travel delays on five continents.
British Airways cancelled short-haul flights Thursday between Heathrow and other British and European cities, as well as the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Passengers on all planes leaving British airports, including domestic and transit flights, were banned from taking any hand luggage on board other than essential items such as money, tickets, keys, some medicines and spectacles.
Apart from baby milk, which had to be tasted before boarding, all liquids were taken from them.
The United States raised the threat level for flights from Britain to the highest state: "severe, or red." For all other commercial air traffic, it was raised to "high, or orange."
The British alert was raised to "critical" -- the highest of five levels -- from "severe," where it had been since security was relaxed in the weeks after the London transport attacks of July 2005 which killed 56 people.
Pakistan's foreign office said Thursday the country had made a number of arrests which helped uncover the plot.
"Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network," foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP.
Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, of London's Metropolitan Police said the plot concerned "people who might masquerade within a community behind certain faiths," in an apparent allusion to Britain's Muslim community.
Last year, four suicide bombers -- all Muslims who had grown up in Britain -- killed 52 commuters in coordinated attacks on three London Underground trains and a bus, the worst terror attack on British soil. — AFP
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