| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| Litvinenko cont'd: 12 sites in England contaminated with low-level radiation |
| 2006-11-30 |
| Traces of radiation have been detected at 12 locations during a probe into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Home Secretary John Reid revealed 24 unnamed locations have been or are currently being monitored by experts. Low levels of radiation had already been found on two British Airways planes connected to the case and a third is being held in Moscow until it is safe to return. Mr Reid said a fourth plane which flew into Heathrow from Moscow this morning had been looked at. The Russian Boeing 737, which is leased by Transaero, was monitored by scientists and later given the all clear. However, Mr Reid said a fifth plane - another Russian aircraft - is also of interest to the inquiry. BA had warned an estimated 33,000 passengers and 3,000 staff when "low levels of radioactive traces" were found on two of its aircraft at Heathrow which had flown between London and Moscow. A spokesman said they were being examined because "individuals involved in the Litvinenko case" had travelled on them. The BA phone number for passengers is 0845 604 0171 and an international helpline can be reached on 0191 211 3690. The BA website is www.ba.com. More: BA is focusing its inquiries on four flights made by its jets between Heathrow-Moscow and Moscow-Heathrow between October 25 and November 3. 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. 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. 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 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'. The Health Protection Agency 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 And a possible connection to the currently ill, former Russian PM: Doctors treating former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, who is gravely ill, believe he was poisoned, an aide said today. Another former KGB spy who met with Litvinenko on the day he was allegedly poisoned, Andrei Lugovoy, served as Gaidar's bodyguard at one point. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Airport security screens out toothpaste, but not radiactive isotopes? |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-11-30 16:13 |
| #1 --Another former KGB spy who met with Litvinenko on the day he was allegedly poisoned, Andrei Lugovoy, served as Gaidar's bodyguard at one point.-- Once a commie, always a commie. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2006-11-30 14:10 |