British airliners on standby for stranded tourists in Egypt
Eleven empty British airliners are on standby in Cyprus and might be used to fly home thousands of tourists stranded in Egypt's Sharm al-Sheikh, airport authorities in the Mediterranean island said on Saturday.
Britain halted flights to and from the Red Sea resort after a Russian plane crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31 with the loss of 224 lives. Western officials think a bomb likely brought the airliner down.
Some flights resumed on Friday to bring home tourists stuck in the resort, where about 20,000 Britons were on holiday, but the operation descended into chaos when Egypt cut the number of flights it would allow to fly them out.
