Adamant: Hardest metal
Friday, February 14, 2003

Live grenade in luggage stops Gatwick flights

icwales.icnetwork.co.uk Feb 14 2003

The Western Mail - The National Newspaper Of Wales

A MAN was being questioned by anti-terrorist police last night after a live grenade was found in a passenger's luggage at Gatwick Airport.

The 37-year-old Venezuelan arrived on British Airways flight 2048 from Bogota in Columbia.

He was held by Sussex Police and taken to a central London police station to be questioned by detectives from Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777 with 125 passengers on board, landed at Gatwick at 1.23pm.

It stopped at Caracas in Venezuela and also in Barbados. It was not clear where the man boarded the plane.

The grenade was found as he went through Customs so explosives officers were called in and it was found to be live.

Part of the airport's North Terminal was evacuated during the alert and outbound flights suspended.

The grenade was believed to have been in the man's hold luggage, not his hand luggage.

Seventeen BA flights due to leave from North Terminal were cancelled. They were mostly short-haul departures. Incoming flights were unaffected.

BA screens 100% of baggage before it is allowed on planes, and was last night investigating if the checks were performed by its own staff at Bogota or by local airport staff.

Flights from Colombia were not suspended.

Roger Cato, managing director of British Airports Authority at Gatwick, said the man was arrested about 2.30pm after the live hand grenade was found in his baggage as he went through Customs.

Mr Cato said suggestions that there had been a controlled explosion were not correct.

He estimated around 100 flights would be affected

Home Secretary David Blunkett said the arrest at Gatwick, and the unrelated arrest of two men near Heathrow, showed the terrorist threat did exist and wasn't being made up.

"Second, it means that our security services are on the ball," he said.

"Third, over the next few days we need to follow leads through."

Hundreds of passengers were stranded in Gatwick's South Terminal as they awaited flights which would have gone by way of the North Terminal.

ITV sports presenter Gabby Logan was among the passengers stuck on planes in Gatwick during the security alert.

She said, "We landed at about

3.15 and since that time we've been on the plane and told that all the planes that have come in since 3pm have basically been grounded.

"Nobody's allowed to leave the plane. Nobody's allowed to get off and go into the terminal. They have closed the terminal and we were told then because of a security alert."

The North Terminal was reopened to the public around

7.45pm.

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