All Airports in London have been closed at the moment and strict security measures are in force. Remains to be seen whether the threat was real, the recent MI5 imminent threats have turned out to be untrue.
A terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.
It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage.
Police have arrested about 18 people in the London area after an anti-terrorist operation lasting several months.
Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are reported. MI5 has raised the UK threat level to critical - the highest possible.
According to MI5’s website, critical threat level means “an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK”.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford says he does not think the police believe an attack is imminent.
“The reason for raising the threat level is in case there is some other sub-plot, back-up plot around this that the police aren’t aware of,” he said.
Scotland Yard said in a statement that their investigation into the alleged plot was a “major operation” which would be “lengthy and complex”.
“We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety uppermost in our minds.”
Home Secretary John Reid confirmed that there had apparently been a plot “to bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions causing a considerable loss of life”.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is on holiday in the Caribbean, but Downing Street said the police operation was undertaken with his full support and he had been “in constant touch”.
A spokesman for Number 10 added that Mr Blair had briefed US President George Bush on the situation during the night. Transparent bags
The Department for Transport set out the details of the security measures at UK airports.
Passengers will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said.
Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags.
“We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only,” the statement said. ‘Jam-packed’
At Heathrow Airport, BBC presenter Fiona Bruce said there were “ranks of people” unable to get into the terminal.
“Terminal One is completely at a standstill. Nobody is being checked in at all.”
She said it was “jam-packed”, but passengers were managing to remain “good natured”.
BBC journalist Joe Lynam encountered the increased security measures at Gatwick airport.
“I was handed a piece of paper saying that pretty much nothing could be taken on board the plane,” he said.
“Everything had to be checked in and that includes mobile phones, ipods, wallets - even spectacle cases had to be checked in.”
British Airways said that passengers who do not wish to fly on Thursday can rebook on flights leaving over the next two weeks.
David Learmount from Flight International Magazine said he expected passengers to be searched much more carefully. He added: “This is the first time this measure has actually been taken. Certainly I’ve never seen hand luggage banned.”
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
Yeah, another hype created by MOSAD-CIA-MI6 just to gain public support from British people in case UK has to join hands in war aginst Hizbollah. BTW, now the 9/11 conspiracy pandora has opened. The truth behind 9/11 is out!
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
Holes blown into the plot before it could takeoff. Hopefully Pakistan can successfully turn up the heat on it's terror training networks before they pull off a success.
Re: Breaking news: ‘Plot to blow up planes’ foiled
there goes another 21 ppl into the black hole never to be seen again.
i think this is just a ploy by US and UK to divert world’s attension off israel’s war crimes in lebanon.also since israel is planning an even bigger offensive in lebanon so this news coming at this time is not a surprise at all. US did this many times in the past to distract its public attention and UK did it recently and counting mashAllah se.so am not surprised at all. :halo:
Re: Breaking news: ‘Plot to blow up planes’ foiled
damn it damn it damn it… flying out on sunday… i hope they waive the allowed weight since no carry on’s are allowed.. i know they are doing it for morrow’s flight…
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
Gret, just great. Media will go ape crap, paranoia will set in a for a few weeks and then all will be forgotten. Time to hunker down fellow Pakis, it's going to be a long month.
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
Apparently they acted on very fresh information less than 5 days old... the last time that happened they shot an innocent man whilst charging into his home......
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
This is not to say there are not enough crazies running around in UK who are/were affiliated with groups like hizb ul tahiri, al ghuraba and mohajiroun earlier. Those groups were very effective in brainwashing young mostly alienated unstelled types of kids, and thus create a rather fertile ground ready to be further molded by more sinister groups.
It was extremely annoying to me, and to many others as teh goverment allowed these group to run rampant, spewing their crap and harassing ppl..mostly muslims in universitis and at mosques. Finally the groups got banned, but much of the damage was done already.
I am amazed to see ppl already sayin its propoganda...I suppose when the trains blew up last time n London it was propoganda too, or mayb it was a figment of our collective imagination.
We can not continue to ignore very real issues present in our communities. Whether this event took place or not, and whether this is real or not, does not change the fact that there are some real issues with british pakistani community, some that are very internal..i.e. the type of groups that have been running unchecked, types of preachers showing up, lack of effort of integration among some quarters mostly the uneducated groups. Some of the issues are larger and with society at large, you can only have second class citizens for so long..a problem that was avoided by authorities for a long time, and that coupled with the internal issues has created a mess which needs to be cleaned up. It is in the interests of all of us, muslims or otherwise, as well as in the interest of the ppl and the families of the ppl who have been turned into such extremist automatons by the named groups.
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
This has been done to divert the media attention from the Lebanon war. There is just no SOLID proof, only liquid proof, that they were carrying liquid bombs in rucksacks. Probably just coke. But I am really sad, that this is yet again going to hurt the Pakistani community even more, & what more, we might even have Musharraf tightening the noose on our madrassas again.
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
jaan leva, and there is your mistake, its not goingt o be ak47s but education, careful planning, and resolving societal issues that will get us there.
everything is a lie? does that include london train bombings, madrid train bombings, the chechen school attack, sectarian killings in Pakistan.
until and unless we tackle these issues, and we see who our youth are listening to, who they are interacting with, what they are becoming its not going to be solved..
we can stick our heads in the sand and not see the issues. the conspiracy theories have a limit,a nd you know what, even in the end if it is idiots being used by anti islam or anti pakistan forces, we still have to tackle the circumstances thata re making ppl ripe as foot soldiers of these supposed "external forces"
Re: Breaking news: 'Plot to blow up planes' foiled
everything is a lie? does that include london train bombings, madrid train bombings, the chechen school attack, sectarian killings in Pakistan.
until and unless we tackle these issues, and we see who our youth are listening to, who they are interacting with, what they are becoming its not going to be solved..
we can stick our heads in the sand and not see the issues. the conspiracy theories have a limit,a nd you know what, even in the end if it is idiots being used by anti islam or anti pakistan forces, we still have to tackle the circumstances thata re making ppl ripe as foot soldiers of these supposed "external forces"
Agreed, fully agreed. But to be honest, I think if this really did happen, which was a fat chance, the entire attention would have been diverted. Lebanon & Syria would have been devastated, & Pakistan would DEFINITELY be next on the list.
