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FBI Joins Investigation of Poisoned Spy
Three British Airways jets _ two at London's Heathrow airport and one in Moscow _ were grounded this week. So far, traces of radiation have been found on the two BA aircraft in London. The Health Protection Agency said passengers on one of the two planes, G-BZHA, had not been put at risk, but officials were still monitoring the possible exposure of passengers on the other, G-BNWX.
Two Russian aircraft were also being investigated. Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Natalia Lukash said the ministry tested two Transaero Boeing-737s on Thursday at the airline's request, and found that radiation levels were within the norm. She did not say what routes the planes had been traveling.
  Russian radiation safety experts' minivan is parked near a grounded British Airways jetliner at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006. Authorities have found traces of radiation on two British Airways jetliners in London, grounded a third plane in Moscow and asked passengers on more than 200 flights to come forward as investigators widened their search for clues in the poisoning death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. (AP Photo/ Mikhail Metzel ) (Mikhail Metzel - AP) PHOTOS |
The reach of the investigation touched tens of thousands who had been passengers on the three BA jets. Some 33,000 passengers and 3,000 crew and airport personnel had contact with the 221 flights on the three British planes.
About 5,500 passengers flooded hot lines to discuss possible symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning, and a special page set up by British Airways to disclose information had 60,000 hits.
It was unclear how the traces of radiation found their way on board, but Home Secretary John Reid sought to reassure anxious airline passengers who were wondering whether they were at risk.
"It's a very low risk indeed," Reid said.
A dozen sites _ including the planes _ in Britain have showed traces of radioactivity, Reid said. Another dozen sites were investigated and some had been cleared. Authorities have refused to say what type of radiation was found.
So far, 24 people who may have been exposed to polonium-210 have been referred to specialist clinics but the 29 urine tests conducted so far have all been negative, the HPA said.
Reid insisted that all of the polonium-210 in Britain was accounted for _ and the question remains of how the rare radioactive element found its way here.
A top Russian health official, Gennady Onishchenko, said the state consumer protection agency he heads has appealed to British authorities for information that would help it conduct unspecified measures _ presumably tests _ among Russians who have traveled aboard the planes in which radiation was detected, the Interfax news agency reported.
Onishchenko said that passengers returning from Britain would be monitored at Moscow airports and that tests of its two major international airports, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo, revealed no radioactive contamination, Interfax reported.
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