Airline chaos after plane bomb bid

Dec 28 2009

Thousands of British air passengers are facing lengthy delays amid security tensions in the wake of the botched Detroit airliner bomb plot.

As intelligence agencies probed the background of the former London student who allegedly tried to ignite a device on Christmas Day, there were anxious scenes at the US airport on Monday night when a second Nigerian man was arrested on the same route.

A security official at Detroit airport confirmed later he posed no security risk to the plane. He was a businessman who had become "verbally disruptive" after falling ill during the flight and locking himself in the bathroom for about an hour, the officer said.

In Britain, passengers waiting to fly to America for New Year were hit by delays of up to three and a half hours while urgent investigations took place to find out how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - who was known to US and British authorities - was able to take explosives on board a transatlantic airliner carrying 278 passengers.

Scotland Yard detectives continued to search the 23-year-old's luxury apartment in a central London mansion block as it emerged an al Qaida operative in Yemen threatened the US and said "we are carrying a bomb" in a video posted online four days before the attack.

The former University College London (UCL) student also reportedly visited East London Mosque in Whitechapel, east London, which has been linked to Muslim extremism, on a number of occasions.

Security sources said that both the police and MI5 were diverting extra staff and resources to the investigation as a matter of priority in order to establish the significance of the "London link".

US President Barack Obama has ordered a fresh review of screening processes after it emerged authorities had been warned about Abdulmutallab's extremist views by his own millionaire father.

People flying across the Atlantic were advised to arrive early and carry just one piece of hand luggage. One flight from London's Heathrow to New York's Newark airport was late leaving by more than three hours, although most delays were less severe.

US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano released a statement saying the additional security measures were "designed to be unpredictable" and passengers "should not expect to see the same thing everywhere".