Terror alert over executive jets flying into Britain

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Unchecked: There are fears that executive jets could use small airfields such as Farnborough to bring criminals and terrorists into Britain

The Government's terrorism watchdog is to call for tighter checks on executive jets arriving in Britain amid concern that foreign militants could use them to enter the country.

In a report to ministers, Lord Carlile of Berriew will raise fears about a loophole in flight notification rules that means the UK authorities are only told about the last place an aircraft took off from and not its original point of departure.

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This means that an aircraft that takes off from the Middle East, Pakistan or other potential danger spot and touches down briefly in Paris is listed only as coming from France.

Lord Carlile, a QC appointed by the Government to monitor its counterterrorism measures, believes this is a potentially serious weakness that could be exploited by terrorists.

The risk, he says, is greatest at small airfields, which are heavily used by private jets but where scrutiny by the police and immigration services is less intense.

The peer also points out that because flight details can be provided by an incoming aircraft as little as three hours before departure, there is only minimal time for the British authorities to react even if there are concerns about a plane.

Lord Carlile's warning comes days after potential flaws in Britain's border controls were exposed by the conviction of a gang that used a private aircraft to smuggle in at least 40 illegal immigrants for £7,000 each.

Pilot Wyatt Anderson, 49, from Camberley, Surrey, was jailed for using airstrips at Lamberhurst in Kent and Bourne in Cambridgeshire to fly in illegal immigrants from remote airstrips in France and Belgium using his six-seater Cherokee. The trial judge said the racket, which used airstrips where there were no passport controls, exposed a " worrying weakness" in Britain's security.

In his forthcoming report on terrorism laws, Lord Carlile will raise similar fears and warn that although scrutiny of executive flights has improved, potential weaknesses remain.

"In my view, we need to retain a high level of vigilance in relation to executive jet travel which at times has been under-policed," he said.

He added that gaps in the flight plans submitted by inbound aircraft were a prime concern. "There are examples of oor practice. If a plane were to start from Algiers or Islamabad and it were to land, however briefly, in any other EU country, then it would appear on the notification as a plane flying in from there," he said.

"We need to ensure that better information-sharing protocols exist that would show the origins of such aircraft to the police and others who might be interested in them."

There are 145 licensed airfields in the UK but there are also thought to be dozens, if not hundreds, more unlicensed airstrips which are used for private flying, although no official figures exist.

Under aviation industry rules, any flight entering European airspace must notify "Eurocontrol", giving details of the plane, its port of origin, the number of passengers and the airport at which it intends to land.

These flight plans must be submitted at least three hours before the plane takes off. Officials at Eurocontrol notify Britain's National Air Traffic Services about any plane that is heading to

Britain but, crucially, only provide the name of the last landing point. The justification for this is that security checks should have been conducted by staff at the airstrip.

Although the bulk of the 6,000 flights a day handled by the Civil Aviation Authority use the major airports, hundreds of thousands of executive jet flights take place each year, with many landing at the smaller airstrips dotted across the country.

 

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