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Sky Marshals for British planes

from Victor Jayanetti, London correspondent

The British government is planning to introduce undercover armed police to travel on passenger flights with orders to disarm hijackers, it was revealed last week.

It is understood that Home Secretary David Blunkett and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling are to work with the main airlines on arrangements to introduce "sky marshals".

The airlines might be asked to contribute to the cost. The figure is still being calculated. The scheme was recommended in a report into airline security commissioned by ministers. It is expected that in the initial stages, undercover police officers would be introduced only on transatlantic flights. They would be brought in on most flights if the move proved successful. The plan has been given fresh urgency by recent intelligence warnings of terror threats to Britain. There are new indictions that terrorists targeted Heathrow Airport.

Investigations into three Al-Qaeda suspects point to a plan to hijack an airliner from Britain's main airport, possibly with the intention of crashing it in the UK.

Terrorism experts say that if Heathrow was an Al-Qaeda target then the group may try again to attack it. Concern about the threat to airliners rose following last month's missile attack in Kenya on an Israeli holiday jet.

The failed attempt to shoot down the plane was carried out at the same time as the car bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombassa in which 15 people died.

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