AF flights canceled between CDG and LAX

I had been hearing this story on the radio all day. I came in here and couldn’t believe it was commented on yet. Here’s the article from Foxnews.com:

WASHINGTON — Six commercial flights between Paris to Los Angeles were canceled Wednesday after U.S. officials alerted their French counterparts about “credible” security threats involving passengers, U.S. and European officials said.

All of the cancelled trips were Air France (search) flights. Three were headed to Los Angeles, and the three other cancelled trips were return flights to Paris.

A spokesman for French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin (search) said the decision to cancel the six Air France flights came early Wednesday after American authorities notified France that “two or three” suspicious people, possibly Tunisian nationals, were planning to board the flights.

U.S. officials have issued several warnings that Al Qaeda (search) could be targeting Los Angeles International Airport.

Also Wednesday, the Delta Airlines terminal at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (search) was closed for about 90 minutes after a woman set off a metal detector and then walked past security guards, Reuters news service reported. The terminal was reopened after a re-screening process was completed, according to the report.

Throughout the day, U.S. officials engaged in intense security talks with officials from other countries as intelligence concerns intensified about Al Qaeda’s possible plans to use airplanes to strike American targets. The United States was also concerned about Aeromexico, a Mexican airline.

On the domestic front, security officials kept a vigilant watch at airports, train stations and public buildings. Police randomly stopped cars near the U.S. Capitol while keeping an eye out for Christmas Eve disruptions.

The U.S. Embassy had requested that the flights to Los Angeles be grounded, according to the French Interior Ministry. A spokesman for Raffarin said the United States had threatened to refuse the planes permission to land in Los Angeles if they took off.

U.S. officials, however, would not confirm that they had asked for the cancellations, leaving the question of what actually led to the decision.

The United States handed French authorities the names of suspicious people who may have intended to board the flights, but no people by those names went through airport security checks, and no arrests were made, the Interior Ministry said.

French television station LCI reported that American authorities believed members of Al Qaeda may have been planning to board the planes. The Interior Ministry declined to comment on whether any Al Qaeda members figured into the incident.

American officials said the U.S. government was comparing data it had compiled on passengers preparing to board flights entering the United States, as well as data on the flight crews on those flights, with terrorist watch lists it has compiled.

“We are looking at both passengers as well as flight crews,” the official said.

Officials from the U.S. Homeland Security Department, including Secretary Tom Ridge, had been meeting with French officials in recent days over concerns about a possible terrorist attack.

In addition, Secretary of State Colin Powell conferred by telephone Wednesday afternoon with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin about the security situation. Bush administration officials declined to provide details but suggested concerns extended beyond the Air France flights.

A Homeland Security official in Washington, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the United States had been working with a number of governments overseas to help them increase their security measures at airports. The official said American officials had passed on to other governments a “very credible threat” of possible attacks originating overseas.

U.S. officials have been working to get foreign airlines to provide American officials with more passenger information on people aboard the flights that originate overseas and travel to the United States, said an official who spoke earlier this week on condition of anonymity. France and Mexico were of particular concern in this regard, the official said.

Despite the threats, U.S. officials were encouraging all U.S. travelers to keep their scheduled holiday plans, noting the “significantly enhanced security here and overseas” since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Before the French ministry issued its statement that the United States had requested the cancellations, U.S. officials in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said the United States had been “hoping that we would be able to lure some of these people in” and arrest them when they showed up for the flights.

The official said then that there was some frustration within the Homeland Security Department that the flights were canceled, thus allowing the word to get out about the security concerns.

But Homeland Security officials declined to clear up the conflict after the French announcement.

Three of the flights were scheduled to depart Wednesday — two from Paris and one from Los Angeles. Air France gave the flight numbers as 68, 69 and 70.

The three other flights were scheduled to leave on Christmas Day — two from Los Angeles and one from Paris. Air France listed those flight numbers as 68, 69 and 71.

No more cancellations were expected, the French spokesman said.

At Los Angeles International Airport, security had already been tightened to its highest level in two years. Los Angeles operates one of the busiest airports in the world and was the hoped-for target in a foiled Al Qaeda bomb plot planned for around New Year’s Day 2000.