JEDDAH, 29 December 2003 — Saudi Arabia yesterday denied a British newspaper report that security forces seized two planes packed with explosives near Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airport, foiling a plot to blow up a British Airways jet.
“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,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.
“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.
The Mail on Sunday said the suspected suicide pilots were arrested in the last few weeks after they were caught red-handed with aircraft loaded with explosives near the Riyadh airport.
“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,” it quoted Patrick Mercer, the opposition Conservative spokesman for Homeland Security, as saying.
Mercer, who said he had been informed of the plot by an “unimpeachable” source, intended to raise the matter at the House of Commons when members return from their Christmas break on Jan. 5, the newspaper reported.
A BA spokesman said the airline had no knowledge of the incident described in the paper. “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,” a spokesman said. “We haven’t changed our flights to or from Saudi Arabia,” the spokesman added.
BA suspended flights to the Kingdom in August citing a security threat, but the airline resumed flying the following month after a review.
Mercer was not available yesterday to elaborate on his remarks and the British Foreign Office said it was not aware of the incident.
Mutt