Airport Security Discussion; Egyptian President in London
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: Well you don't see this very often, literally zero percentage change. It could have been up and down sort of topsy-tipsy-turvy short of session. 3m ringing the closing bell and I think we call that a firm gavel to bring trading to a close on Thursday the 5th of November.</s>QUEST: Tonight, proceed with caution. British carriers ban checked luggage on flights out of Sharm el-Sheik. World leaders air their differences over what could have caused the crash. And Russia mourns those it lost in a disaster that remains unexplained.</s>QUEST: I'm Richard Quest. We have an hour together, and I mean business.</s>QUEST: Good evening. Russia is beginning the burial of the victims from Metro Jet flight 9268 whilst leaders are sparring over the cause of the crash.</s>QUEST: The British Prime Minister David Cameron says in his words it was more likely than not that a bomb brought down the airbus, A-321. And speaking to CNN, a U.S. official said suspicions there was a bomb plot arose from the specific nature of some chatter detected online. Contrast that within Egypt where the Civil Aviation Minister has pushed back hard saying officials have no evidence to support that claim. And the head of Russia's air transport agency agreed saying investigators are months away from drawing any conclusions.</s>QUEST: Meanwhile, in Downing Street, the Egyptian President said British officials have been checking security at Sharm el-Sheik airport for ten months.</s>ABDEL FATTAH EL-SISI, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT: (As translated) We say it one more time. We are prepared to cooperate further with any procedures that reassure our friends that security measures in place at Sharm el-Sheik airport are enough and that the airport is safe to a good standard.</s>QUEST: And so there's a straightforward disagreement between leaders with the Anglo American Alliance very firmly now coming down on the side of an explosive device. For those who are in Sharm el-Sheik, well the British Prime Minister's office announced flights from the region to the U.K. will resume on Friday and there are some extraordinary restrictions that are going to be in place.</s>QUEST: Flights from Monarch, Easy Jet and British Airways will take place. They'll have flights out of Sharm tomorrow. But there is a restriction on the rescue flights. You can't bring -- well, you can bring hold baggage, but it will be sent separately from the aircraft and you're restricted to one cabin bag with very strict restrictions that you will be reunited with your luggage once you get home. Thomson, Euro Wings, Thomas Cook and Edelweiss Air they are -- continued maintaining flights suspended through until November 12 as more and more airlines try to work out the ramifications for all of this. And the ANVR which is the Association of Dutch Tour Operators, say they're waiting for results and the next scheduled flight would be on Sunday. For security experts, it's the possible lapses at Sharm el-Sheik airport with U.S. evidence suggesting someone helped place a bomb on board the plane.</s>QUEST: Ian Lee is at the airport and, Ian; I want to start first of all with these extraordinary restrictions that we are now hearing for this British Airways, Easy Jet, Monarch. You've seen the letter that they're being handed out and you know in that sense. So basically they're saying bring your luggage but your luggage is going to go a different way than you. Is that right?</s>IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is exactly right. And it is quite extraordinary and it's probably what came out of this meeting between British security officials and Egyptian security officials. British officials worried about security here. They've been meeting for a couple of days now and now we're seeing this -- these flights resume ,but with these restrictions. So it seems like that is the deal that they were able to come up with to get these flights back going and these stranded tourists back home.</s>LEE: And talking to some of them, they were quite frustrated with how this all turned out. They wished they were better informed and had a better heads up that these flights were going to be delayed. But as we heard from the Prime Minister, this was something that was taken with the safety of British nationals in mind. But I have to tell you, a few hours ago there were hundreds of people here behind me. Still this is very much a busy airport, a lot of people going home. A lot of people I talked to were going to Ukraine and I asked them if they felt safe and they said absolutely. They said security concerns weren't on their minds, Richard.</s>QUEST: Ian, this concept, now this idea that somebody at the airport was or at least complicit - responsible or complicit for getting a device on. Now I spoke to the tourism minister a few days ago, we heard the President say security conforms to all international standards. Yet one's left wondering where the truth lies in all of this.</s>LEE: You know the interesting thing someone brought up to me today was that as you know Sharm el-Sheik hosts a lot of international conferences where they have world leaders coming in all time. They have business leaders coming in so they know how to have really tight security. And coming to one of these conferences you do go through a lot of checkpoints, a lot of bomb- sniffing dogs and so it must be good enough for these world leaders to come and visit so officials here are talking to them are insulted by these accusations. They say that security here has always been tough and it will remain tough.</s>QUEST: Ian Lee who's in Sharm el-Sheik for us tonight. Simon Calder is the travel editor for the British newspaper the "Independent" and it's always good to have Simon with us to put some perspective into this. Simon, the restrictions on baggage. I mean I'm reminded of you know after the underwear, or the shoe bomber, I can never remember which, when suddenly liquids and gels and you weren't allowed to bring anything on board except what you could carry. But these restrictions, what's the logic behind all of this?</s>SIMON CALDER, TRAVEL EDITOR, THE INDEPENDNET: It's very simple and it goes back to the heart of this, which is the British government saying to the Egyptian government we do not trust your air security: therefore we are seeing first thing in the morning British time a fleet of seven Easy Jet flights, five Monarch flights going out to Sharm el-Sheik with their holds sealed.</s>CALDER: Those will be checked when they arrive at Sharm el-Sheik there will be guards on duty to make sure nobody puts anything at all in the hold.</s>CALDER: So passengers are being told yes just bring one small item of cabin baggage which you can take into the aircraft if you take more than that, it's going to be flown home with the rest of your stuff by the RAF, the Royal Air Force will be sending over transport planes to bring passengers' luggage back.</s>QUEST: So it's the RAF that's bringing the stuff back. Look, I'm aware 224 people are dead and there's a possibility of a bomb, but does this seem like a dramatic overreaction by the British to a situation where first of all we're not entirely certain it was a bomb and secondly you can at least check the baggage when it's there.</s>CALDER: Well, exactly. The closest I can come to this -- and its stretching back into the memory banks a bit -- is immediately after the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing, 21st December 1988. After that appalling outrage, it was a Pan Am jumbo jet flying from London to New York downed over Lockerbie in Scotland. After that, the Americans in hours were sending security officials to airports right across Europe and effectively saying, hey, we are going to impose our own secondary checks. That's effectively what the British government is saying right now and one can only imagine, Richard that they have some kind of intelligence which says to them this is absolutely crucial to keep British airlines and British passengers safe.</s>QUEST: Sharm el-Sheik is an extremely significant destination, not only for British tourists who go there frequently but also for the Egyptians. And to a large extent has been if not insulated at least not as effected by the Arab spring, by the (inaudible) by the government upset and by the unrest. People have managed to divorce the Red Sea resorts from the rest of Egypt. Does that change now?</s>CALDER: I think what -- it all depends on what we -- going right back to the terrible tragedy that happened on Saturday morning Egyptian time. It all depends what the investigators find. If it turns out if it was a bomb then it will be effectively Russia's Lockerbie.</s>CALDER: That is immediately going to transform the attitude of Russians to holidaying in Egypt and they are a very important market. It will also upset an awful lot of other people. It just depends. If it turns out to be a dreadful accident, that will be different.</s>QUEST: Finally, Simon, we have a direct contradiction here between the U.S/U.K. saying it's a bomb or we believe it's a bomb, or it has the hallmarks of a bomb, you can parse whichever language you like, but the Russians and the Egyptians saying there's no evidence of that yet and there won't be evidence for some time to come. The traveling public doesn't know what to make of it.</s>CALDER: No, absolutely not. It's very upsetting for the traveling public.</s>CALDER: It's also very upsetting for the grieving relatives of the victims of the crash who of course want answers, but they want accurate answers rather than politician's speculation and, dare I say it, spin.</s>QUEST: Simon Calder, very grateful you've come along this evening to give us perspective and insight. Thank you, sir. Russian victims, an Egyptian airport, and officials in both countries irritated.</s>QUEST: But Washington and London are talking about evidence of terrorism and yet, according to what they're saying, aren't willing to share the evidence about that. We'll talk about it more after the break. .