Jet Airways confirms an employee one of arrested foiled terror plot suspects
India's Jet Airways confirms an employee one of arrested foiled terror plot suspects
By Nicholas Ionides in Singapore
India’s Jet Airways has confirmed that a London-based employee was one of the more than 20 people arrested by British authorities last week as part of their probe into an alleged plot to blow up aircraft on transatlantic flights.
The carrier says in a statement that the employee, Asmin Tariq, “is being suspended pending a full investigation, having not reported for duty for the past couple of days”.
Jet says Tariq, a member of its ground staff at London Heathrow airport, holds a UK passport. He became an employee in March this year when the airline ended its passenger service representative contract with G4S, which was previously known as Securicor.
It adds that UK employment law required it to take on G4S employees when it brought the work in-house.
“All G4S employees, including those who transferred to Jet Airways, had been cleared by the UK government security agency, namely Disclosures Scotland, to work at the airport,” says Jet.
“Typically it can take up to 12 weeks for an individual to obtain security clearance to work in Heathrow following references and referees from five different sources.”
Jet, India’s largest privately owned airline, serves Heathrow from the Indian cities of Amritsar, Delhi and Mumbai.