I think the police presence is there to make sure the terrorists can't get into place with the weapon. The group is believed to have Stinger missiles or similar, and these couldn't hit a plane at altitude (so far as I know) - it would have to be on take-off or landing, so police have thrown a cordon around the airport, and are stopping cars several miles away, to protect incoming and outgoing aircraft by making sure none of the cars they stop have Stinger missiles inside them!
Do you remember when the IRA launched a missile at 10 Downing Street from the back of a van? Unbelievable. John Major, Douglas Hurd etc at a cabinet meeting, suddenly - window breaks behind them, all hell breaks loose outside, someone rushes in "It's the IRA!", so they very calmly decide to hold their meeting in another room. End of story! Only in Britain . . . ;-)
Sarah
At 9:41 AM +0000 02/12/2003, Tamsin Lucas wrote:
Thanks Sarah, I feel much better now!! ;-)
