Three British Airways aircraft were grounded tonight at Heathrow Airport after police and scientists investigating the murder of Alexander Litvinenko discovered traces of radiation on two planes.
The Home Office said that radiation tests were being carried out “to assess if there is any risk to public health” as BA announced it was trying to contact hundreds of passengers who travelled on four flights between Moscow and London in the last week of October and first week of November.
BA said in a statement that three B767 short-haul aircraft, used on European routes, had been grounded for forensic examination after tests found “very low traces of a radioactive substance on board two of the three aircraft”.
“British Airways has been advised that this investigation is confined solely to these three B767 aircraft, which will remain out of service until further notice,” the airline said. “British Airways understands that from advice it has been given, the risk to public health is low.”
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Passengers who travelled on BA flights BA875 and BA873 from Moscow to Heathrow on October 25 and October 31 were asked to contact the airline. Those on flights BA872 and BA874, from Heathrow to Moscow, on October 28 and November 3 were also asked to come forward.
Mr Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war in Chechnya, was poisoned with the radioactive element, polonium-210, in London on November 1.
He died in hospital last Thursday night and since his death anti-terrorism detectives and health officials have run parallel investigations, with police seeking to reconstruct the day of the poisoning while scientists from the Health Protection Agency working to identify members of the public who may have come into contact with the chemical.
So far eight people with suspicious symptoms are being assessed by a specialist clinic to see if they have been contaminated. More than 1,100 people have called a national helpline worried that they could have been exposed to polonium, traces of which have been discovered at least six locations in London already.
Today police continued to examine rooms in the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel and another office address in Mayfair, No 58 Grosvenor Street. Polonium-210 has not been discovered at either location.
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So far toxicologists have already detected the element at at No 25, Grosvenor Street, the headquarters of Erinys, a private security company, a hotel in nearby Grosvenor Square, a Piccadilly sushi restaurant, Mr Litvinenko’s home in Muswell Hill and the offices of Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch and Putin-critic who was one of Mr Litvinenko’s friends and benefactors since his defection in 2000.
Mr Berezovsky is the leading player in the group of dissidents and friends of Mr Litvinenko who have accused the Russian security services of poisoning the former FSB Colonel. Russia denies any involvement but yesterday Tony Blair declared that no “diplomatic or political barrier” would be allowed to stand in the way of the investigation.
Investigators hope that this painstaking reconstruction will pinpoint where and when in the day Mr Litvinenko was poisoned.
Police are studying who was dining at the same time as him in the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly and who was around during his meeting with two Russians in the Pine bar at the Millenium Hotel in Grosvenor Square.
A senior official with the Health Protection Agency said that it was hoped that computer models would be able to measure the strengths and amounts of polonium-210 found at places Mr Litvinenko visited to deduce when the poison was put into his system.
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The source said “It takes a small number of hours for the person ingesting polonium-210 to begin to excrete radioactive material through sweat, saliva, urine or faeces.”
Mr Litvinenko was reportedly showing no signs of contamination when he left his town house in Muswell Hill, North London, that morning.
It was when he returned home in the evening that he complained of feeling unwell and went to Barnet Hospital where minuscule amounts of the polonium-210 were found.