Planes With Explosives Found at Saudi Airport

Sunday, December 28, 2003 

Planes With Explosives Found at Saudi Airport 
Seattle Times, WA

LONDON — Saudi security forces have seized light planes packed with 
explosives near Riyadh's King Khalid airport, foiling a plot by suicide pilots 
to blow up a Western airliner on the runway, a British newspaper said today. 

Two pilots apparently intended to crash the planes into a Western jet on the 
tarmac, Patrick Mercer, homeland-security policy chief for Britain's opposition 
Conservative Party, was quoted as saying in the Mail. British Airways was 
believed to be the likely target. 

"My understanding is that (the light planes) were found on the flight line and 
that the plan was to fly them into a passenger jet either about to land or take 
off," Mercer told the paper. 

A British Airways spokesman said the airline had no knowledge of the incident 
described in the paper. 

The two pilots were among several people arrested after the planes were 
discovered in recent weeks, the paper said. 

Mercer was not available to elaborate on his remarks, and the British Foreign 
Office said it was not aware of the incident. 

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