WE COULD HAVE BOMBED ANY TARGET IN LONDON
Feb 28 2003
EXCLUSIVE
By Gary Jones
A TERRIFYING security loophole was exposed by a Daily Mirror sight-seeing flight over London yesterday.
We hired a helicopter without identity or luggage checks and flew over many of the capital's landmarks - including the Houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf and the City of London.
Had we been terrorists, it would have been easy to overpower the pilot and send the helicopter crashing onto the House of Commons or Big Ben.
We could have hurled a bomb or unleashed a deadly poison cloud.
Buckingham Palace was within close range. And at one point, the helicopter hovered over Parliament at 1,500ft.
We passed the Commons three times, causing so much noise that guests at a special lunch attended by Lord Tebbit could hardly hear themselves speak.
Intelligence sources have warned that al-Qaeda terrorists might attempt a propaganda suicide bombing of Westminster.
Helicopter sight-seeing tours were banned briefly after the September 11 attacks in America.
In the US, tough security measures were introduced following the air hijackings - including stringent identity and bag checks for helicopter flights.
But there were no questions asked when photographer Emma Cattell and myself arrived at Biggin Hill in Kent for yesterday's trip. We didn't even give our full names.
I had phoned Biggin Hill Helicopters at about 10.30am saying I wanted to hire a helicopter for a sight-seeing tour as a birthday present for my girlfriend.
At first I was told one wasn't available because of a training lesson but I was called back shortly afterwards on a mobile phone to be told: "If you can get here by 1.15pm you'll be OK."
After parking directly outside BHH's prefabricated building, I was met by a man called Will, who said: "You must be Gary."
After a short briefing about the flight, involving how to wear seatbelts correctly and avoid the rotor blades, the four-seater helicopter landed to pick us up.
I had a black bag with strap slung over my shoulder and my colleague a large handbag containing a digital camera. At no stage were the bags checked for their contents. They were not even given a cursory glance.
The only mention made of my bag - which could easily have concealed a gun or a gas canister - was when I laid it at my feet.
I was asked by the pilot called Simon, in his late 20s, what it contained. I replied: "A camera." I was told to put the bag in the back because it could become entangled in the pedals.
No check had been made on either of our identities before we boarded the flight. Apart from the credit card details which I had given over the phone earlier, BHH had no information about us.
It was only after we had landed and were driving back to London that an address was asked for so a receipt could be given for the cost of the flight.
The helicopter emblazoned with the sign LBC - the capital's independent radio station which hires the chopper for its travel reports - flew directly towards Canary Wharf before following the path of the River Thames.
The spectacular journey passed the City of London and was supposed to end at Battersea power station.
But our trip was interrupted by a Ministry of Defence Chinook helicopter taking special services personnel to the Duke of York's barracks at Chelsea.
The distinctive dark green MoD chopper was given priority and flew beneath us a couple of kilometres away as we hovered above the Commons.
Helicopter sight-seeing trips follow a pre-determined path into the capital, twisting and turning along the Thames.
But with the Houses of Parliament directly on the river, a terrorist would not need to manoeuvre the helicopter any great distance to hit the target. Security services and anti- terrorist police have warned of the threat of attack.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens says: "It is not a question of if, but when."
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Perhaps the UK Government ought to search every vehicle entering the conjestion charging zone
Whatever next ?