French, U.K. Jets Said Possible Targets

The national threat alert level won’t be raised despite renewed concerns about terrorist threats against British and French flights headed for the United States. New intelligence indicates that British Airways flights from London to Washington and Air France flights from Paris to an unspecified U.S. city could be terrorist targets, U.S. officials said.

Some of the flights are the same as those that drew increased attention when the nation’s terror alert was raised temporarily to orange, or high, just before Christmas. Two officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, stressed there is no specific information about what might be plotted, only that those flights are possible targets.

There are no plans to raise the terror alert from the current yellow, or elevated, level because of the latest threats, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

“We remain concerned about al-Qaida’s desire to target aviation, especially international aviation,” he said. “The U.S. intelligence community continues to gather specific credible threat information on international flights, as we have done in an ongoing basis in the past few weeks. We have shared this information with our international partners, and will work with them to put in place the appropriate security measures.”

Over the holidays, security was tightened considerably around the flights that concerned officials. Passenger airline cargo was inspected, for example, and law enforcement’s presence was increased at airports.

No flights have been delayed or canceled due to the new threats, officials said. However, a senior law enforcement official said U.S. officials are talking to British and French authorities and no decisions have been made about delaying or canceling future flights.

Another senior law enforcement official said the intelligence being gathered is similar to what U.S. authorities were hearing during the heightened terror alert. That prompted U.S. officials to ask for the cancellation of two British Airways flights from London to Washington and six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles.

A number of other flights were delayed for hours so passengers could be checked against watch lists.

One of those flights, British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington Dulles International Airport, is the subject of renewed concern by intelligence officials.

U.S. officials say they believe the process for checking the backgrounds of airline passengers and crews has been improved so that those long delays probably won’t be repeated.

An Air France spokeswomen in New York, Diane Cornman, said there was good cooperation among the airline and U.S. and French government officials. “We have been complying with all security measures,” she said.

A telephone call to British Airways seeking comment wasn’t returned immediately.

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Associated Press reporters Curt Anderson and Katherine Pfleger contributed to this report.