'Spy' radiation alert for 33,000 BA passengers

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Radiation has been found on two planes

More than 33,000 British Airways passengers faced a radiation scare last night as three planes were grounded over fears that they have been contaminated by the toxin that killed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

The ex-KGB agent became violently ill and subsequently died after apparently being poisoned with radioactive polonium 210.

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BA is focusing its inquiries on four flights made by its jets between Heathrow-Moscow and Moscow-Heathrow between October 25 and November 3.

More than 200 flights between Heathrow and Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Athens, Larnaca, Stockholm, Vienna, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Madrid from October 25 to November 28 could also have been affected.

Two of the aircraft have already tested positive for an unidentified radioactive substance and the third was last night on the runway at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Government orders.

The grounded planes each carry up to 250 passengers and are part of British Airways' short-haul Boeing 767 fleet.

BA boss Willie Walsh said: 'The aircraft involved have been withdrawn from service and will remain out of service until we're satisfied that all necessary steps have been taken. At this stage, we want to reassure our customers in relation to this. The advice that we have is that the risk to public health is actually very, very low.'

The initial results of forensic tests confirmed very low traces of a radioactive substance yesterday afternoon. Sources said it could not have been naturally-occurring.

The first flight was grounded when it landed at Heathrow from Vienna on Tuesday night. It had flown to the Austrian capital after failing to land in Warsaw due to poor weather.

Yesterday morning, a flight from Athens was grounded when it arrived at Heathrow at 11am. Several seats at different locations on the plane are understood to have been taped off.

Then a flight from Heathrow to Moscow was intended to return to the UK with passengers. But BA was ordered to ground the plane by the British authorities.

The airline is understood to have put into force a crisis-response team to deal with the incident.

Last night, the Home Office said the tests were to assess whether there was any risk to public health.

The decision to ground three commercial passenger planes is another extension of the net which has already seen searches for signs of contamination at a string of London locations.

It throws the spotlight back on to a meeting that Mr Litvinenko had with another former KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoy, in London's Millennium Hotel on the day he was apparently poisoned with polonium 210.

Two Russians who met Mr Litvinenko in the hotel that day are thought to have travelled on the grounded aircraft. Security sources described yesterday's developments as 'potentially very significant'.

If police discover traces of polonium 210 on an aircraft that travelled to London before November 1, when Mr Litvikenko became ill, the finger of blame for the poisoning would point to Moscow. Meanwhile, the Health Protection Agency revealed that as of midnight last night, NHS Direct had received 1,325 calls from members of the public worried about radiation contamination.

Mr Litvinenko died a week ago after ingesting a dose of polonium 210 - a toxin 250billion times deadlier than cyanide. On his deathbed, he pinned the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin, a claim denied by the Kremlin.

Police are investigating a series of meetings Mr Litvinenko had before he became ill, including the November 1 hotel encounter with Mr Lugovoy.

Mr Lugovoy has said: 'I have the feeling that someone is trying to set me up as the fall guy.'

Also at the hotel were Dmitri Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, Russian business associates of Mr Lugovoy. The men deny involvement. Earlier that day, Mr Litvinenko went to the Itsu sushi restaurant, where he met Italian professor Mario Scaramella. He is being interviewed by detectives. Last night his lawyer Sergio Rastrelli said: 'Mario is in the clear.'

Almost 50 staff at the two hospitals which treated Mr Litvinenko are being tested to see if they have been contaminated by radiation. A post-mortem examination will be carried out on Mr Litvinenko's body tomorrow.

The HPA confirmed last night that traces of polonium 210 had been found at Down Street and Grosvenor Street in London.

The Grosvenor Street address houses the headquarters of international security company Erinys, visited by Mr Litvinenko.

The address in Down Street was the office of exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a friend of Mr Litvinenko.

BA says it is especially keen to contact passengers from these four flights: • BA875 Moscow-Heathrow on October 25. • Aircraft number GBNWX • BA872 Heathrow-Moscow on October 28. • Aircraft number GBNWX

• BA873 Moscow-Heathrow on October 31. • Aircraft number GBNWB

• BA874 Heathrow-Moscow on November 3. • Aircraft number GBZHA The BA website is www.ba.com, or call 0845 604 0171 or international helpline 0191 211 3690.

 

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