Response To Increased Terror Alert

After six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles were grounded by terror threats last week, Britain's Home Office has decided to go ahead with deployment of armed sky marshals on domestic and foreign flights "where and when we believed it necessary."

A joint statement issued by Home Secretary David Blunkett and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling hastened to add that it's still safe for the public to fly. It called the increased security precautions in the US in recent days meant the UK should propose a "proportionate and appropriate level of response."

"I can assure the travelling public that if we believed it was not safe for them to travel or fly we would say so. What we are proposing are some sensible additional security measures," said Blunkett.

The move is a controversial one in Britain, where, unlike in the US, most pilots are opposed to putting armed marshals inside the aircraft. A spokesman for the British Airline Pilots Association said putting marshals on planes was "the worst thing you can do. We don't want guns on planes, it's dangerous to have guns on planes and there are other things you can do like investing in security measures on the ground."

FMI: www.dft.gov.uk