Israeli Airline Foils London Plot to Bomb Jumbo Jet

LONDON —  Airline security staff at London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday foiled an attempt to blow up an El Al Israel Airlines jumbo jet carrying 400 passengers to Israel, and police quickly launched a massive manhunt for an Arab suspect.

The man, identified as a 35-year-old named Nezar Hindawi, is believed to have duped his Irish girlfriend into carrying a 10-pound bomb in the false bottom of her carry-on luggage. Police said they did not know Hindawi’s nationality.

Although no organization has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing, and police say there is no hard evidence to link the incident to reprisals threatened by Arab countries for the use of air bases in Britain by the U.S. warplanes that bombed Libya, an increasingly nervous British public has little doubt that such a link exists.

The woman, said to be in her 30s, was arrested after a member of the Israeli airline’s special staff discovered the bomb in a final security check, conducted moments before the woman was scheduled to board the flight for Tel Aviv.

She had apparently passed without difficulty through all routine security checks carried out on passengers boarding flights at Heathrow’s Terminal One before being stopped at a special search point operated by El Al only for its passengers. Police declined to comment on how the woman passed through other airport security points.

Might Have Killed 400

“It is highly likely such an explosion would have resulted in the loss of the aircraft and the 400 passengers and crew,” said Cmdr. George Churchill-Coleman, head of the anti-terrorist branch of the London Metropolitan Police.

Police said the bomb had been set to go off about three hours into the scheduled 4 1/2-hour flight.

Terminal One, which mainly handles British Airways flights within Europe, but also airlines from politically sensitive countries such as Israel and South Africa, was immediately evacuated after the bomb was discovered.

The El Al aircraft, Flight 16 originating from New York, was towed to a security area, where it was surrounded by heavily armed police. Sniffer dogs were used to search for any additional explosives. The flight, filled with passengers heading to Israel in advance of the Passover holiday next Wednesday, departed five hours late.

Police bomb disposal units later removed the bomb to an open area of the airport where it was defused.

Woman Apparently Duped

At a news conference later in the day, Churchill-Coleman said that after extensive questioning of the arrested woman, police believed that she was unaware that the bomb was in her luggage when Hindawi dropped her off at the airport Thursday morning.

She is said to have told police investigators that Hindawi was to have accompanied her on the flight but altered his plans to depart on a later plane.

“She could have in all innocence boarded the aircraft,” said Churchill-Coleman. “There is a very real possibility she was duped into taking it on board. At this stage there is no question of charging her.”

He said the woman, whose name the police did not publish, is single. She was employed at a London hotel and had known Hindawi for about a year. They were apparently about to go on a vacation together.

Eluded Police Checks

Hindawi accompanied his girlfriend to the airport departure area, but eluded police checks set up on airport exit roads immediately after her arrest.

There was also considerable nervousness at other West European airports Thursday. Amsterdam police stepped up security at Schiphol airport, saying they had information about international guerrilla actions. A spokesman said cars traveling to and from the airport were checked for three hours but nothing was found.

He gave no details but said the security measures were very indirectly linked to the bomb incident at Heathrow.

Lufthansa canceled its only flight to Tripoli, citing uncertain conditions in the Libyan capital. In Madrid, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Spanish airline, Iberia, had also canceled its lone flight to Tripoli, apparently for similar reasons.