Airline chiefs play down al-Qaida threat
Aviation chiefs insisted measures to protect the world’s airlines are adequate and today downplayed a purported al-Qaida claim that it is now targeting Western carriers.
“The level of security we have today is absolutely remarkable, and improvements which have been made since September 11 are very impressive,” said Jean-Cyrill Spinetta, chairman of the International Air Transport Association.
Spinetta, who also heads Air France, was reacting to a warning allegedly signed by an al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia that the terror network will target Western airlines, military bases and residential compounds in “the near future.”
The authenticity of the statement, posted on the internet on Monday and signed “Al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula,” could not be confirmed.
“The level of (security) control we have, the companies and the authorities, is very effective,” said Spinetta, speaking at the close of a three-day airline conference in Singapore.
Al-Qaida carried out the four airliner hijackings over the US on September 11 2001 before crashing them in New York and Washington.
In 2002, al-Qaida claimed responsibility for an attempt to down an Israeli chartered jet with anti-aircraft missiles in Mombasa, Kenya.
