US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has confirmed that air travel between Europe and the US will continue to be designated a high threat of terrorism.
Chertoff said the orange, or high, threat level assigned to the airline sector – one level higher than the overall alert level for the US – was based on a general assessment rather than a specific threat.
“We’ve seen again and again interest in this sector,” he said, referring to the Heathrow security alert in August 2006 and the attempted car bomb attack on Glasgow Airport last year.
“So people think of aviation not only in terms of the aircraft but the whole infrastructure including the airports,” he said.
More than six years after the 9-11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people, “there continues to be a focus on air travel as a target,” he said, adding the threat level was unlikely to be changed in the near future.
Chertoff warned that one of the biggest threats to US security could come from Europe and said European counter-terrorism authorities acknowledge their countries “are both a target and a platform” for militants.
Report by David Wilkening in New York
