British airliner turned back over cell-phone ring:

A British Airways flight to New York was turned back to London’s Heathrow airport on Sunday because of a security scare over a mobile phone that did not belong to any of the 217 passengers, officials said.

The phone was later found to be safe, as the government said the threat to Britain of a terrorist attack had been downgraded to severe from the critical level last week when police said they had foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.

Despite the downgrading, the Transport Department warned in a statement: “This (still) means that a terrorist attack is still highly likely.”

The United States said it had also scaled back the threat level for flights from Britain but would remain vigilant.

British Airways said the captain of the airliner had decided to return to London as a precautionary measure.

“A mobile phone was located on board the aircraft which none of the passengers appeared to own,” it said in a statement.

Makes this feel even more yikesy, does it not?

The story also reports chaos at airports on both sides of the Atlantic. Varifrank reports it’s something less like chaos and more like Christmas.

More travel reports, here.

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