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CNN Live At Daybreak
London Advised British Airways to Cancel Flight
Aired January 02, 2004 - 06:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Getting back to airline security for a second, though. Those British Airways disruptions in London and D.C. are causing obvious concerns for air travelers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a bit nervous, because I've been watching the terror level, and it's like it's really high. And it's like it keeps me nervous all the time because I've got my little brother with me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to, so I will fly, and I don't know the reason for this cancellation now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: As for holding passengers aboard that one flight for up to five hours, the FBI calls it unfortunate.
Other British Airways flights to the United States are operating as normal. So, why this intense concern over Flight 223? That's the plane in question.
Live now to our Robin Oakley in London.
What is it about this particular flight?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it certainly seems that there is some specific information which involves the flight number BA 223, because, as you say, other flights indeed from London to Washington have been allowed to go ahead -- other BA flights, other British flights to other U.S. cities.
But U.S. transportation security officials did say that they had specific intelligence information which made them interested in this flight -- the flight that was cancelled yesterday.
But British Airways are now saying that they are expecting to go ahead with the flight today, that same 223 flight from London to Washington, which would argue that the threat has been considered to have lessened to some degree. But we'll still wait for a final decision in the next couple of hours as to whether it definitely does go ahead.
But this is all part of a wider security alert, of course, with the U.S. on the high orange security alert, with London authorities warning for some months now of a possible al Qaeda terrorist outrage at some time. And they were on high security alert when President George Bush visited London last month. So, there is a lot of information sculling about at the moment.
What we don't know really is whether there is a very direct and specific threat or whether this is just a case of the authorities taking every possible precaution -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know the British papers, the headline in the British papers this morning say the fears are associated with a hijacking threat. Do you know anything more about that? Or we can't get more specific right now?
OAKLEY: No, I think that is largely supposition that if there is a threat to a particular aircraft, that the most likely form that threat would take is of hijacking. And, of course, those warnings that we had from U.S. authorities before the Christmas holiday of the possibility of a repetition of some kind of 9/11 outrage involving an aircraft, those have certainly heightened the fears that it could be a hijacking with the objective of crashing a plane into some particular target. But there is no specific information coming through on that.
And, of course, it has to be said that there are stories today of the French authorities saying that the six flights they cancelled from Paris to Los Angeles over the holiday period, they are now saying that that was on erroneous information from the FBI. That the FBI had compared passenger lists, misunderstood Arabic names, and targeted people or considered people a risk, who were perfectly innocent and not really the same people as they have on a terrorist -- suspected terrorist database -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Robin Oakley reporting live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 2, 2004 - 06:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Getting back to airline security for a second, though. Those British Airways disruptions in London and D.C. are causing obvious concerns for air travelers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a bit nervous, because I've been watching the terror level, and it's like it's really high. And it's like it keeps me nervous all the time because I've got my little brother with me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to, so I will fly, and I don't know the reason for this cancellation now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: As for holding passengers aboard that one flight for up to five hours, the FBI calls it unfortunate.
Other British Airways flights to the United States are operating as normal. So, why this intense concern over Flight 223? That's the plane in question.
Live now to our Robin Oakley in London.
What is it about this particular flight?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it certainly seems that there is some specific information which involves the flight number BA 223, because, as you say, other flights indeed from London to Washington have been allowed to go ahead -- other BA flights, other British flights to other U.S. cities.
But U.S. transportation security officials did say that they had specific intelligence information which made them interested in this flight -- the flight that was cancelled yesterday.
But British Airways are now saying that they are expecting to go ahead with the flight today, that same 223 flight from London to Washington, which would argue that the threat has been considered to have lessened to some degree. But we'll still wait for a final decision in the next couple of hours as to whether it definitely does go ahead.
But this is all part of a wider security alert, of course, with the U.S. on the high orange security alert, with London authorities warning for some months now of a possible al Qaeda terrorist outrage at some time. And they were on high security alert when President George Bush visited London last month. So, there is a lot of information sculling about at the moment.
What we don't know really is whether there is a very direct and specific threat or whether this is just a case of the authorities taking every possible precaution -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know the British papers, the headline in the British papers this morning say the fears are associated with a hijacking threat. Do you know anything more about that? Or we can't get more specific right now?
OAKLEY: No, I think that is largely supposition that if there is a threat to a particular aircraft, that the most likely form that threat would take is of hijacking. And, of course, those warnings that we had from U.S. authorities before the Christmas holiday of the possibility of a repetition of some kind of 9/11 outrage involving an aircraft, those have certainly heightened the fears that it could be a hijacking with the objective of crashing a plane into some particular target. But there is no specific information coming through on that.
And, of course, it has to be said that there are stories today of the French authorities saying that the six flights they cancelled from Paris to Los Angeles over the holiday period, they are now saying that that was on erroneous information from the FBI. That the FBI had compared passenger lists, misunderstood Arabic names, and targeted people or considered people a risk, who were perfectly innocent and not really the same people as they have on a terrorist -- suspected terrorist database -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Robin Oakley reporting live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
