ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Nov 28: President Bush told how security fears had forced him to be ready to cancel his surprise trip to Iraq any time before Air Force One landed in Baghdad on Thursday.

Relaxing again in his office on the presidential jet on the 13-hour trip back to Washington, Mr Bush told reporters: “I was fully prepared to turn this baby around.”

In the end, the only threat to the thick veil of secrecy thrown over the mission was an alert British Airways pilot.

White House officials told how at one stage on the flight to Baghdad, the British pilot radioed across: “Did I just see Air Force One?”

Colonel Mark Tilman, chief pilot on the presidential jet, remained silent for a long time. Then he replied “Gulf Stream Five”, which is a smaller jet.

The BA pilot said “oh” as if he knew something secret was happening, the officials said.

Mr Bush told reporters the safety of the US troops in Baghdad and of the plane had been his prime concern throughout the weeks of planning after White House chief of staff Andrew Card had asked him in mid-October whether he wanted to go to Baghdad.

He said he told Andrew Card: “Yes I would, except I don’t want to go if it puts anybody in harm’s way.”

The president said he had considered it essential to get a message across to the 130,000 troops in Iraq and their families in the United States “that we care for the troops, that we support them strongly”.

Mr Bush added: “I understood the risks and over time I was assured by our planners and, importantly, by the military people and the pilot of this plane, that the risk could be minimized if we were able to keep the trip quiet.”

Among the handful of officials who knew of the visit were Gen John Abizaid, the head of Central Command, which includes the Iraq operation, Paul Bremer, the chief US administrator in Iraq, and Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the head of US forces in Iraq.

“They were comfortable all the way through,” Mr Bush said.—AFP