Mon, Dec 29, 2003
BA: We Wouldn't Fly If It Wasn't Safe
Saudi Arabia's official
news agency Monday denied remarks from a British member of
Parliament, who said Sunday that Saudi intelligence agents had
foiled a plot involving general aviation aircraft.
Patrick Mercer (right), the opposition spokesman for British
Homeland Security, told the Sunday Globe and Mail that Saudi
authorities had arrested several terror suspects -- among them, two
men who were planning to use general aviation aircraft packed with
explosives to dive-bomb a British Airways 777 at King Khalid
Airport in Riyadh.
“My understanding is that they were found on the flight
line and that the plan was to fly them into a passenger jet, either
about to land or take off,” said Mercer, quoted in the
Mail.
Mercer said the Saudis were trying to cover up the incident, but
cited "unimpeachable sources" in his account. Indeed, the official
Saudi news agency said Monday, “A Saudi security official
said that a report by The Mail on Sunday quoting a British
politician as saying that Saudi authorities arrested two suicide
pilots who were planning to fly two small planes into a packed
British Airways plane is not true.”
“It is unfortunate that some foreign newspapers have taken
to publishing such baseless reports, with the aim of
sensationalizing them and showing no sense of the responsibility of
the media,” the Saudi official said.
British Airways initially refused comment on the story, citing
security concerns. Later, the airline said though a spokesman,
“We are in regular contact with the Saudi authorities and the
British government and we wouldn’t fly unless it was
completely safe to do so. We haven’t changed our flights to
or from Saudi Arabia.”
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