Al Qaeda Threat Led to Flight Cancellations

Jan. 2, 2004 -- The decision to cancel some British Airways flights on the London-Washington route in the last two days was based in part on information that a team of al Qaeda operatives planned to take over a flight during the New Year's period and crash it into a U.S. target, ABCNEWS has learned.

On New Year's Day and again today, British Airways canceled Flight 223 from London's Heathrow Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport, and the return flight from Washington to London was canceled Thursday evening, as terror concerns continue to disrupt international air travel.

The airline announced today it was canceling Saturday's flight, BA263, from Heathrow to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for security reasons. It did not elaborate.

Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS that the cancellations on the London-Washington route were due to information from a "human source" overseas and analysis of other intelligence. The human source, whose credibility U.S. officials have been unable to confirm, said plans were in place to specifically take over Flight 223 and crash it into a U.S. target.

British defense analyst Paul Beaver said intelligence sources told him the target could have been Washington.

"There seems to be very hard intelligence coming from the United States that there is a serious threat to Flight 223 — the British Airways flight," Beaver said. "It's flight-related, not passenger-related or freight-related. And this is related to something which may be targeted in the Washington area — some sort of spectacular … either flying the aircraft into something or detonating it over Washington itself."

On Wednesday, New Year's Eve, the same flight was kept on the runway for three hours after landing at Dulles while security officials questioned passengers on board. The jet had been escorted to the airport by two U.S. F-16 fighters.

A later London-Washington British Airways flight, BA225, was allowed to make the trip today, with many people from the earlier canceled flight on board.