British Airways canceled its afternoon flight from London to Washington for the second day yesterday following security advice from the British government, an airline spokeswoman said.
The same flight, BA223, was canceled Thursday with the same explanation.
On Wednesday, BA223 was kept on the taxiway at Washington Dulles International Airport for several hours shortly after landing, while US authorities questioned passengers and crew.
PHOTO: AP
Yesterday's cancelation came a week-and-a-half after the Bush administration raised the national terrorism alert to orange, its second-highest level. Security restrictions on US airspace were tightened over the New Year holiday.
Yesterday's British Airways service was due to leave at 3:05pm, and was canceled less than two hours before take-off. Some passengers had already begun to check in.
The airline declined to comment on the nature of the security advice yesterday.
"It was following advice from the UK government regarding security, we can't comment further than that," a spokeswoman for British Airways said on condition of anonymity.
Paul Beaver, a British defense analyst, said he had been told that Washington was ``the definite target.''
``We have got intelligence, I am told, that there was a plan to take the aircraft and destroy it over Washington or fly it into something,'' Beaver said
British Airways said the 300 passengers booked for the flight would be offered refunds, or seats on other flights.
An earlier service, flight BA217, left Heathrow for Washington at 1pm. It had been delayed for two hours after US security authorities requested further information from the airline, the spokeswoman added, without elaborating.
BA's later service from Heathrow to Washington, was scheduled to leave on time at 6:40pm, the airline added.
A return flight to London, BA222, which was scheduled to leave Washington at 9:40pm local time, would also be canceled, the airline said.
Mexico had also canceled flights to the US while US warplanes have been tailing in-bound Air France flights for fear attackers might try to crash them into American targets, US officials said on Thursday.
Security fears amid a heightened terror alert also prompted a two-day suspension of oil shipments from Alaska's major port of Valdez, Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security officials said. The halt of transfers of oil onto tankers began on Tuesday and was lifted on Thursday.
An Aeromexico flight to Los Angeles from Mexico City was canceled on New Year's Eve and Jan. 1 because of suspicions would-be hijackers might have booked tickets, Mexican and US officials said.
The oil suspension in Alaska was part of "a continuing effort to ensure the security of our homeland," consistent with Code Orange, the heightened alert level in effect since Dec. 21, said Russ Knocke, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman.
It was not clear what specifically triggered the decision to suspend the traffic.
Valdez is the terminal for the trans-Alaskan pipeline from Prudhoe Bay. The 1,280km pipeline normally carries about 1 million barrels a day to Valdez, or about 17 percent of US domestic production.
A Bush administration official said US intelligence remained particularly concerned about "credible" threats to Los Angeles-bound flights from Paris and Mexico City.
In boosting the alert level last month, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda movement appeared intent on matching or outdoing the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
An administration official confirmed several Air France flights had been escorted by US fighter jets to make sure they stayed on course.
"When this happens in the middle of the day and there are two F-16s outside of an aircraft, you obviously don't keep it a secret," the official said.
Six flights between Paris and Los Angeles were canceled on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 at the urging of Washington after US officials spotted what they believed were suspicious names on lists of those due to board the planes.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS