Bank holiday begins with airline security scares travellers
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Your support makes all the difference.A flight from Britain to the United States was diverted yesterday after a security scare on board.
The American Airlines flight from Manchester to Chicago had to land at an airport in Bangor, Maine.
It was apparently forced to land after the discovery that one of the passengers names was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "no fly" list, according to an aviation industry source.
The 167 passengers were being interviewed by officials but were expected to be able to continue their journey on a separate flight early this morning.
The scare was one of five security alerts in the US yesterday, which included the discovery of a dynamite in the bag of student who flew into Houston from Buenos Aires. The dynamite was reportedly contained in a Coca-Cola bottle and the man was said to have told officials that had bought it as a souvenir at a mine in Bolivia.
With strict security measures remaining in place, the hundreds of thousands of Britons set to fly abroad this weekend could face delays. Limits on the size of hand luggage and the ban on taking fluids bought outside airport security zones on to aircraft expected to cause problems, especially to infrequent flyers.
A survey by the hotel chain Travelodge showed 5 per cent of Britons had cancelled trips abroad because of the recent airport chaos. Those who stay at home will have to contend with rain today and on Bank Holiday Monday, although it is likely to be drier tomorrow. Temperatures are unlikely to exceed 22C (72F).
The Highways Agency expects as many as 30 million vehicles to take to the roads and said it was suspending road works on 12 sites in England.
BP has forecast that UK motorists taking to the roads this weekend will emit one million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) the equivalent of annual CO2 emissions for 500,000 family houses.
The Conservatives have published a dossier of what they described as " 20 government broken promises" that will affect bank holiday travel this weekend. They list cancelled or delayed road and rail improvements to UK holiday destinations, including the £4bn modernisation of the East Coast Main Line, which is now on hold and proposals for the Stonehenge tunnel.
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