Airlines: U.K. travel grinding to halt Contributed by Bill Faith
LONDON - Airlines warned the British government Saturday that the country's air travel is "grinding to a halt" because of tough new anti-terror security requirements. One airline asked for police and army reservists to help with screening.
British Airways and Ryanair canceled scores of flights from Britain to Europe and the United States and blamed airport operator BAA for not investing enough in security systems and baggage screening in the aftermath of new terrorism threats.
BAA, which owns Heathrow and Stansted airports, ordered the cancellations because its systems for screening passengers and checked-in baggage for security threats could not cope with the extra required scrutiny of passengers and their luggage in the wake of Thursday's thwarted threat to bomb up to 10 U.S.-bound aircraft.
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A British Airways flight from Heathrow to New York has been turned back after a mobile phone was heard ringing at the back of the plane.
No-one on board the plane admitted owning the phone, banned under current security restrictions, so flight BA179 returned to the London airport.
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Contributed by Bill Faith on August 13, 2006 at 06:58 PM in , , |