Bomb Scare on British Airliner..
| Published by Jefferson Davis on Sunday, August 13, 2006 at 9:46 pm.
A British Airways flight to New York was turned back to London's Heathrow airport on Sunday because of a security scare over a mobile phone that did not belong to any of the passengers, officials said.
The phone was later found to be safe, as the government said the threat to Britain of a terrorist attack had been downgraded to severe from the critical level last week when police said they had foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.
Despite the downgrading, the Transport Department warned in a statement: "This (still) means that a terrorist attack is still highly likely."
British Airways said the captain of the airliner, which was carrying 217 passengers, had decided to return to London as a precautionary measure.
"A mobile phone was located on board the aircraft which none of the passengers appeared to own," it said in a statement.
Mobile phones were banned from flights departing from British airports under new tough security measures introduced after the disclosure of the alleged plot to smuggle bombs on to aircraft disguised as drinks.
