BRITISH AIRWAYS will hold emergency talks with the main pilots’ union today in an attempt to reach agreement on the use of sky marshals.

The British Air Line Pilots Association (Balpa) believes the repeated delays to Flight 223 from Heathrow to Washington are linked to BA’s reluctance to allow sky marshals on its planes.

The daily flight, which was cancelled on Thursday and Friday over undisclosed security concerns, was delayed for more than three hours on both Saturday and Sunday while the US authorities scrutinised passenger lists.

Jim McAuslan, Balpa’s general secretary, said: “There is a growing feeling among our members that Flight 223 was grounded as a shot across the bows by the Americans.

“We are concerned it was a political decision to get BA to accept air marshals. Until it does, the US may make life so difficult that passengers start switching to other airlines.”

Mr McAuslan accepted that some intelligence about Flight 223 had been received but he said that the decision to cancel or delay it for four consecutive days had made Balpa members very suspicious.

Mr McAuslan will raise Balpa’s concerns at a meeting tomorrow with Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary.

Balpa will refuse to support the introduction of marshals unless captains are told who they are and allowed to question them before take-off. The union also wants captains to be protected from punishment by airlines if, after speaking to the air marshal, they decide it is not safe to fly.

The aviation industry is privately furious that the deployment of air marshals is being rushed through. The US Department of Homeland Security introduced an emergency requirement last Monday that armed guards be placed on flights “where security officials obtain information indicating a need”.

Balpa believes any guns allowed on an aircraft could fall into the wrong hands. It wants security efforts to focus on screening passengers and luggage before take-off.

Mike Street, BA’s director of operations, issued a statement to staff at the weekend that appeared to contradict itself over whether air marshals would be used.

The statement said: “We will only accept the deployment of an armed police officer on one of our flights if we are satisfied that safety would be enhanced to an acceptable level for the flight to take place.” But it went on: “If there is security information about a particular flight that gives us cause for concern then we will not operate that flight.”

The US had already made clear that sky marshals would be required only where there was a security concern.

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