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CNN Live Today

Air Travel Back to Normal?

Aired February 02, 2004 - 11:30   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Airline schedules appear to be running a bit more smoothly now. Not so this weekend. Nine flights were scrubbed because of security concerns.
Jeanne Meserve is at Dulles Airport outside of Washington with the latest on that.

Jeanne -- good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

A British Airways flight and an Air France flight, both scheduled to come in here to Dulles Airport, amongst those cancelled because of intelligence, which indicated al Qaeda's renewed interest in targeting airliners. A government official says the intelligence, which came from a credible source, was very specific as to the airline, as to the flight numbers and as to the date. The information was corroborated, this source says, by communications intercepts.

The information, however, was not specific as to the possible method of the attack, and so analysts looked at a range of possibilities. Of course, whenever you talk about airliners, there's the fear of hijacking and the possibility that an airliner could be used as a weapon.

But in addition, they factored in the fact that al Qaeda remains intensely interested in acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction. And so, they took a look at the possibility of biological or chemical weapons being dispersed on board an airliner; also the possibility that a radiological device might be transported by an airliner. So, the whole range of possibilities under consideration.

Christopher Shay is a member of Congress, who says that six of the cancelled flights originated overseas. And this points out a problem with airport security in some overseas airports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Well, I think, we in the United States do a better job than they do in Europe. In traveling from Europe, I'm pretty surprised with how lax it appears to be at times.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MESERVE: Among the flights cancelled yesterday was a flight from this airport to Houston, Texas, during the Super Bowl. Homeland security officials say, however, they have no indications at all that the game was targeted.

As to future cancellations, they say unless some new information, new intelligence is developed, they do not expect any addition additional cancellations -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jeanne, it seems a lot of these international flights get cancelled. LAX, Los Angeles, keeps popping up. Any information about why that keeps coming up on the radar?

MESERVE: No, I don't have any specific information. It's just that apparently that that flight, and specifically some other flights, were mentioned in intelligence that cropped up at around Christmas time, and again at this batch of intelligence. As to why LAX, I don't know -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. But it's been cleared for now. Thank you for that. Jeanne Meserve at Dulles just outside of Washington, D.C.

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 February 2, 2004 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Airline schedules appear to be running a bit more smoothly now. Not so this weekend. Nine flights were scrubbed because of security concerns.
Jeanne Meserve is at Dulles Airport outside of Washington with the latest on that.

Jeanne -- good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

A British Airways flight and an Air France flight, both scheduled to come in here to Dulles Airport, amongst those cancelled because of intelligence, which indicated al Qaeda's renewed interest in targeting airliners. A government official says the intelligence, which came from a credible source, was very specific as to the airline, as to the flight numbers and as to the date. The information was corroborated, this source says, by communications intercepts.

The information, however, was not specific as to the possible method of the attack, and so analysts looked at a range of possibilities. Of course, whenever you talk about airliners, there's the fear of hijacking and the possibility that an airliner could be used as a weapon.

But in addition, they factored in the fact that al Qaeda remains intensely interested in acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction. And so, they took a look at the possibility of biological or chemical weapons being dispersed on board an airliner; also the possibility that a radiological device might be transported by an airliner. So, the whole range of possibilities under consideration.

Christopher Shay is a member of Congress, who says that six of the cancelled flights originated overseas. And this points out a problem with airport security in some overseas airports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Well, I think, we in the United States do a better job than they do in Europe. In traveling from Europe, I'm pretty surprised with how lax it appears to be at times.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MESERVE: Among the flights cancelled yesterday was a flight from this airport to Houston, Texas, during the Super Bowl. Homeland security officials say, however, they have no indications at all that the game was targeted.

As to future cancellations, they say unless some new information, new intelligence is developed, they do not expect any addition additional cancellations -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jeanne, it seems a lot of these international flights get cancelled. LAX, Los Angeles, keeps popping up. Any information about why that keeps coming up on the radar?

MESERVE: No, I don't have any specific information. It's just that apparently that that flight, and specifically some other flights, were mentioned in intelligence that cropped up at around Christmas time, and again at this batch of intelligence. As to why LAX, I don't know -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. But it's been cleared for now. Thank you for that. Jeanne Meserve at Dulles just outside of Washington, D.C.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.