UK airport delay after plot foiled

[estranged4life]

Thursday, August 10,2006; Posted: 2:44 a.m. EDT (06:44 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- Major delays are expected at all UK airports after the nation's threat level was raised to "critical" when police disrupted a plot to blow up planes in mid-flight.

The British Home Office on Thursday raised the country's alert level to "critical," meaning "an attack is expected imminently."

London's Metropolitan Police said a months-long intelligence operation by the anti-terrorist branch and security service resulted in several arrests overnight, according to a Scotland Yard news release.

The aim of the plot was to explode devices carried aboard planes in handheld luggage -- especially on flights from Britain to the United States, according to Scotland Yard.

Major disruptions are likely at airports across Britain on Thursday after authorities said no carry on luggage would be allowed into the cabin of aircraft.

"All passengers must be hand searched, and their footwear and all the items they are carrying must be X-ray screened," a BAA statement said. (Full story)

The alleged terror plot comes more than five years after Briton Richard Reid attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001, only a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Passengers thwarted his plan, and the plane landed safely in Boston. Reid pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in October 2002 and is serving a life sentence at the nation's super-maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

In Washington, FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said the agency is aware of the "ongoing situation in London" and will issue a statement later.

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Saw this on my local news (Trying to check the weather before I went to asleep-And yes, tomorrow will be day 12 of consecutive 100+ degree weather) and according to reports there were plans to bomb at least 20 airline jets in midflight from the UK to the USA today.