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American Morning

BA Flight Targeted

Aired January 02, 2004 - 09:03   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Specific intelligence has prompted the cancellation of yet another British Airways flight today. Flight 223 will not leave Heathrow Airport for the second straight day out of London, canceled on both ends of the route yesterday, on Thursday.
U.S. fighter jets meanwhile accompanied that flight on Wednesday, to its regular destination to Dulles International Airport. Passengers then were rescreened. Robin Oakley, live in London, Heathrow Airport, to tell us what's happening over there.

Robin, good afternoon.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this has come as something of a surprise, certainly to the passengers arrived expecting to catch flight 223 to Washington, in a very short time from now, because they had all traveled to the airport with the expectation that this flight was going to be reinstated today. British Airways have been saying earlier that they were hopeful of running the flight, but now they're saying that on further security advice from the UK government, they have canceled the flight for security concerns. And that means that flight 222 from Washington to London later today will also be canceled. All of this, of course, against the background of the high orange security alert in the United States. High security alert in London, where authorities have warned of a possible al Qaeda outrage, and where security has been high for weeks now, including the time when President George Bush came for his visit.

And, of course, we've also seen this week the insistence of the U.S. authorities that many scheduled flights from Europe to America have to carry on sky martials now. So there is, obviously, a wide security concern, and clearly, a particular concern about this particular flight, 223, because other flights have been allowed to take off, including the previous flight today, British Airways flight to Washington; although that was delayed three hours, that has taken off, Bill.

HEMMER: Robin Oakley, thanks, live at Heathrow.

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 - 09:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Specific intelligence has prompted the cancellation of yet another British Airways flight today. Flight 223 will not leave Heathrow Airport for the second straight day out of London, canceled on both ends of the route yesterday, on Thursday.
U.S. fighter jets meanwhile accompanied that flight on Wednesday, to its regular destination to Dulles International Airport. Passengers then were rescreened. Robin Oakley, live in London, Heathrow Airport, to tell us what's happening over there.

Robin, good afternoon.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this has come as something of a surprise, certainly to the passengers arrived expecting to catch flight 223 to Washington, in a very short time from now, because they had all traveled to the airport with the expectation that this flight was going to be reinstated today. British Airways have been saying earlier that they were hopeful of running the flight, but now they're saying that on further security advice from the UK government, they have canceled the flight for security concerns. And that means that flight 222 from Washington to London later today will also be canceled. All of this, of course, against the background of the high orange security alert in the United States. High security alert in London, where authorities have warned of a possible al Qaeda outrage, and where security has been high for weeks now, including the time when President George Bush came for his visit.

And, of course, we've also seen this week the insistence of the U.S. authorities that many scheduled flights from Europe to America have to carry on sky martials now. So there is, obviously, a wide security concern, and clearly, a particular concern about this particular flight, 223, because other flights have been allowed to take off, including the previous flight today, British Airways flight to Washington; although that was delayed three hours, that has taken off, Bill.

HEMMER: Robin Oakley, thanks, live at Heathrow.

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