British Airways looking at anti-missile systems

London, Sept 06: British Airways Plc, Europe's biggest airline, said on Friday it was talking to aircraft manufacturers about high-tech measures to guard against surface-to-air missile attacks on its planes. "Our security team has been talking to the manufacturers - Boeing and Airbus - about anti-missile technology," said a British Airways spokeswoman, adding that the talks were exploratory and no decisions had yet been made.


She said the talks began several months ago.



Israeli airliners are believed to carry anti-missile systems, but most of the more than 12,000 commercial planes flying worldwide have nothing to protect them from being downed by a shoulder-mounted missile.

Analysts say the main obstacle to putting anti-missile systems on commercial aircraft is the cost and that there are limits to how well airliners that fly slow and unarmed can be protected.

An Israeli airliner was targeted last November by two heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles as it left Kenya but managed to narrowly evade them, leading to speculation the Arkia Israel Airlines jet had used decoy flares similar to those used by combat aircraft.

In August, BA was given permission by Iraq's Governing Council to resume flights to Basra in the south of the country.

A military source told Reuters at the time that security concerns were still an obstacle to the reopening of the airport in the capital Baghdad.



"There is still a perceived threat of surface-to-air missiles in Baghdad," the military source in Iraq said.
Bureau Report