EU praises Britain over thwarted terror plot
The EU today hailed the success of the British authorities in disrupting a “major terrorist plot” aimed at blowing up several civilian airliners.
“Today’s events show once more that terrorism is a continuous and global threat in Europe and in other parts of the world, which calls for a constant, concerted response from all European countries, institutions and peoples,” European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini said.
He said the Commission was in “close and continuous contact” with British authorities on the issue.
EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot welcomed the quick reaction of Eurocontrol – the European Union’s air traffic agency – which prevented flights from taking off to Heathrow airport and helped reroute flights already on their way there.
“The aviation industry had shown great solidarity in very difficult circumstances,” Barrot said in a statement.
Airlines across Europe cancelled flights bound for Heathrow Airport today, while some airports offered to take on diverted traffic after British authorities said they had thwarted a terror attack aimed at aircraft flying from Britain to the US
Across the continent, travellers trying to get to Britain were stranded – and tempers were fraying.
“This is not fun at all. You get no compensation. Nobody gets any help here. You feel abandoned,” said Cicero Alves Do Nascimento, a 47-year-old Brazilian martial arts teacher stuck at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport after his British Midland flight to Heathrow was cancelled.
The block on incoming traffic at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, applied to flights of three hours or less – effectively stopping most flights from Europe.
At Schiphol airport, KLM spokesman Hugo Baas said the airline had cancelled five flights to Heathrow.
“The backlog for people travelling to and through London is in the hours. That’s going to create a ripple effect throughout the day, and increase as long as the airport remains closed,” he said.
He said KLM was diverting to other London airports, and substituting larger planes where possible to increase the number of people reaching their destination.
Gabriele Pfeiffer, a lawyer for OEAMTC, Austria’s largest advocacy group for travellers, cautioned people who had booked vacations in Britain to think twice before cancelling, or risk foregoing refunds.
“Vacationers should wait for further developments and under no circumstances hastily cancel,” Pfeiffer said, citing court rulings that travel companies are not obligated to refund the cost of flight tickets or hotel deposits based on a terror warning alone.
“Whoever rushes into cancelling his journey to Great Britain now does so at his own risk,” she said.
Alves Do Nascimento, the Brazilian traveller in Amsterdam, said he was rebooked on a flight for tomorrow but got no voucher for a hotel or food because the airline said it wasn’t to blame.
The US government raised its threat assessment to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States and counterterrorism officials said flights operated by Continental, United and American were the likely targets of the foiled plot.
Frankfurt International airport, Europe’s second-busiest, said it was prepared to take any flights diverted from Heathrow, but none had landed by mid-afternoon. The airport already has more than 1,400 planes landing and taking off daily, spokesman Wolfgang Schwalm said.
Schwalm said security measures had been increased but that no ban on hand luggage had been put into place at Frankfurt.
Austrian Airlines said a Heathrow-bound flight from Vienna was diverted to Brussels and that two other afternoon flights would be cancelled if Heathrow remained closed.
A nine-year-old girl at Warsaw’s airport told Polish television that she was not sure if she would be able to get to London to see her mother.
“My mom is waiting for me there,” the girl, who only gave her first name Klaudia told Poland’s TVN24. “I am very worried because my mom does not know about that yet.”
In Berlin, easyJet, British Airways, AirBerlin and Ryanair cancelled their London-bound flights.
Air France cancelled all morning flights to Heathrow because the airport was “saturated,” an Air France spokeswoman said.
German carrier Lufthansa said its morning and early afternoon flights to Heathrow were cancelled. No other Lufthansa flights were affected.
All flights from Athens to airports in the London area were cancelled. Spain’s Iberia cancelled four flights to Heathrow, and Italian carrier Alitalia stopped six flights through London – four linking the city with Rome and two with Milan.
SAS, the flagship carrier for Sweden, Norway and Denmark, cancelled its flights to Heathrow from Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. Irish national carrier Aer Lingus, which uses Heathrow as its only London airport, cancelled all flights to and from London in response to the alert.
France’s prime minister and interior minister convened urgent security meetings today
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was to head a closed-door meeting this afternoon with the national police chief and top intelligence, counterintelligence and border officials at the ministry in Paris, his office said.
Immediately afterward, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin will meet with Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to discuss the fight against terrorism, the prime minister’s office said.
Frustrated and weary passengers at Charles de Gaulle sat waiting for news, with no clear information on connecting flights and no announcements about the British events or their repercussions.
“It seems unreal. You read that there are still threats but I thought this type of thing was over,” said Jim Arkrot of Stockholm, who was stuck at Charles de Gaulle when his connecting flight to London was cancelled.
Air France security officers said they were following regular protocol, though a number of military vehicles were seen arriving at the airport this morning.
Meanwhile, the Eurostar train that passes under the English Channel saw 2,500 extra bookings today, said Eurostar spokeswoman Leslie Rettalack. The added reservations came from Eurostar terminals in Paris, London and Brussels.
Eurostar was considering adding trains to its already packed summer schedule to accommodate passengers stranded by mass disruptions at Heathrow, she said.
She insisted that security measures for train passengers were already at high levels, with all bags and passengers scanned.
French civil aviation authorities said the national security alert system, known as Vigipirate, had not been raised from its current red level – one step short of the highest level, scarlet.
The red level foresees thorough checks of each passenger and item of luggage. The alert level was elevated to red from orange in July 2005, after bombings on the London transport network. At the scarlet level, authorities could shut down airports.
