'Bomb Plot at RUH'

[RealFish]

The BBC (Ceefax 114) are tonight quoting from a Mail on Sunday story which will tomorrow claim that two 'suicide pilots' have been arrested in Saudi the last few weeks, 'with (light) aircraft loaded with explosives near RUH.'

It is claimed that they were preparing to fly them into an arriving or Departing BA a/c.

[Airbubba]

Report: Saudi Police Foil Airliner Attack

Reuters
Saturday, December 27, 2003; 6:52 PM

By Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi security forces have seized light planes packed with explosives near Riyadh's King Khalid airport, foiling a plot by suicide pilots to blow up a Western airliner on the runway, a British newspaper said on Sunday.

Two pilots apparently intended to crash their light planes into a Western jet as it taxied slowly on the tarmac, the Mail on Sunday quoted Patrick Mercer, homeland security policy chief for Britain's opposition Conservative Party as saying.

"My understanding is that (the light planes) 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," Mercer told the paper.

The two pilots were among several people arrested after the planes were discovered some time in the past few weeks, the paper said.

It said British Airways was believed to be the most likely target, although several other European carriers also use the airport.

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."

BA suspended flights to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom in August citing a security threat, but the airline resumed flying the following month after a review.

Mercer was not available to elaborate on his remarks and the British Foreign Office said it was not aware of the incident.

Britain and the United States have both warned of possible threats to Western aviation targets in Saudi Arabia over the past few months.

Saudi Arabia, birthplace of suspected September 11, 2001, mastermind Osama bin Laden, has seen a wave of strikes by militants this year, including major suicide bombings at housing compounds in May and November that killed more than 50 people.

Police and militants have had frequent shootouts. The government has rounded up hundreds of suspects and says it has seized massive caches of explosives and weapons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34944-2003Dec27?language=printer

[Changi]

The story is a crock. Its just an old internet rumour that the guy has picked up on. even the Saudi's are denying it all now.

[mutt]

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