NEW YORK, Aug 10: Nightmarish echoes of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks spooked US airports on Thursday, after British police said they had smashed a plot designed to unleash a new round of airborne carnage.
Four years and 11 months since nearly 3,000 people were massacred in the world’s worst terror attack, airline travellers again found themselves caught on the frontlines of the war on terror.
Airport terminals clogged up with delayed passengers as draconian security measures were introduced after US authorities took the unprecedented and alarming step of raising the threat level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States to “severe,” or red.
At New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, a bustling hub for transatlantic flights, passengers admitted disquiet that they were apparently still in terrorists’ cross-hairs.
“It’s a bit unsettling, isn’t it?” said Sarah Brakell, a student from London who was trying to get home.
“It does make me a little nervous, but life goes on. You can’t stop and do nothing.”
Another passenger, New Yorker Patrice Boyce, en route to South Korea via San Francisco, admitted she was having flashbacks to September 11, saying “I’m just praying my flight is going to be OK.”
At Dulles airport — which serves international flights headed for the US capital, and was the departure point for the plane that rammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 — long lines snaked from security checkpoints out of terminal doors in the early-morning hours before being rerouted from one end of the building to the other.
Hastily made signs all over the airport warned passengers to take no liquids or gels beyond the security checkpoint, after indications that alleged plotters had planned to use drink containers to assemble bombs in mid-flight.
An airport official bellowed through a megaphone, telling harried travellers of the new arrangements — after many of them left home for their flights oblivious to the sudden hike in airline security.
“No liquids,” airport workers shouted in English and Spanish as they walked up and down long security lines.
Large cardboard boxes and trash cans overflowed with soap and toothpaste containers as airport workers struggled to cope with fast-growing mountains of discarded personal items.
Most passengers willingly tossed out bottles of water, but others found it tough to part with luxury goods — one woman balked at throwing out a 100-dollar beauty product.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney activated National Guard reserve troops to help with security at Boston’s Logan airport — the origin for the two planes which were crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001.
Romney also ordered a second level of security screening for passengers at each departure gate.
Alarm also spread north of the border. In Canada, passengers were barred from taking all liquids except baby milk and medicines on board flights.
In Ottawa, shops beyond airport security points restricted the sale of coffee and soft drinks. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority also warned of delays.
American Airlines, which along with United Airlines uses London Heathrow airport, said it had been forced to cancel six flights as a result of the security scare.
Delta Air Lines, which flies out of London Gatwick airport, noted that additional security measures had been put in place for all Britain-bound flights, but it continued to operate flights to and from Britain.
British police earlier announced the arrest of 21 people allegedly involved in the operation, which US officials said was in the “final stages of planning”.
Officials were already pointing to an Al-Qaeda-type operation — with similarities to the September 11 plot — but the operation also seems to share some characteristics with what is known as the “Bojinka” plot.
Part of that project, foiled in 1995, involved plans by Islamic extremists to blow up 11 US airliners en route to America from Asia.—AFP
