British Airways Americas is telling previous U.S. passengers to visit its Web site www.ba.com to determine if they have been aboard aircraft where traces of radiation material was found.
Meanwhile, Baltimore and Washington area airports officials continue to urge customers to contact British Airways with concerns about radiation exposure
Passengers would have been on the flights that departed from either London, Moscow and several other European cities no earlier than Oct. 25.
Dozens of flights are listed, and the airline has said that as many as 33,000 passenger were aboard the flights.
“Passengers should visit our Web site and check the dates, the departure cities and the flight number,” said Michelle Kropf, a spokeswoman for British Airways Americas, located in New York.
In Europe, British Airways has set up a hot line to answer passenger inquiries. Passengers calling outside Europe should dial +44 (0) 191-211-3690 to get more information.
And the European National Health Service has set up a hotline to take passenger calls. In the U.S., British Airways suggests worried passengers contact a doctor.
Earlier this week, British government officials asked the airline to take three planes out of service so that they could be inspected in connection to the death of former Soviet intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko. Government officials had found heavy doses of radioactive polonium-210, a nuclear isotope, in Litvinenko. The spy had been a critic of the Russian government.
Government officials also found traces of the radioactive material in two of three British Airways planes taken out of service.
Kropf said the planes are under the control of British government and the airline has not decidedwhat will happen to them until government decides what the next step is. Rob Yingling, a spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority, said the agency has not been swamped with calls from nervous air travelers about the British Airways incident.
His agency oversees Dulles International Airport in Virginia, which, along with Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, handles British Airways flights.
“Passengers are probably calling the airline,” Yingling said. “We are not getting a lot of calls.”
