today, three u.s.-bound flights from france have been cancelled due to security concerns, and chicago's mayor got permission to restrict flights temporarily over chicago.
i'm now a litte sad on christmas eve...being reminded how the world i'm raising my 2-year-old in has dramatically changed.
i still wish you all the best for the holidays, and let us all hope for better years to come.

Carib, do you have a link? The mayor of Chicago wouldn't shut down the airspace unless something major is happening.

mayor daley didn't shut down the entire airspace. he just restricted flying above downtown area except for medivac, law enforcement etc.

cnn.com & msnbc.com carrying it but only a headline so far.

Knew about the three planes from Paris.

Carib, I thought you meant the mayor had shut down the airspace. I think under an orange alert, airspace over major cities and places like Disney is restricted.

Here is the story from Reuters:

Air France Cancels U.S.-Bound Flights Over Security



PARIS (Reuters) - France said Wednesday that national carrier Air France had canceled three U.S.-bound flights from Paris due to security concerns.


Reuters Photo



The French interior ministry said the flights were canceled at the request of the U.S. embassy in Paris. The United States is on a heightened state of alert ahead of Christmas and the Washington Post reported that foreign airlines were under particular scrutiny.


An Air France spokeswoman confirmed that a flight due to leave Paris at 1235 GMT for Los Angeles had been grounded "for security reasons."


The French prime minister's office said the cancellations had been prompted by information obtained from anti-terrorism operations. An interior ministry spokesman said that two other flights to the United States had also been canceled. It was not clear whether these flights were bound for Los Angeles or elsewhere.


The U.S. government raised its terror alert to the second highest level Sunday and warned Americans there was a high risk of attacks around the holidays in the United States that could be bigger than those of September 11, 2001.


The Washington Post reported Wednesday that new U.S. intelligence had prompted greater scrutiny into whether foreign airports and airlines pose a security threat.


U.S. security officials were thoroughly checking the identities of foreign flight crews and had questioned a few people with names that appeared to be similar to those on the FBI (news - web sites)'s "watch lists" of suspects, the report said, citing administration sources.


Officials declined to identify the air carriers involved, the newspaper reported.


Passengers coming into at least one major U.S. international airport on Air France and flights from Mexico will be subject to more security procedures beginning Wednesday, the report said, citing industry sources.


France has not raised its security alert for the Christmas holiday period.

gotravel..sorry if i gave that impression. anyhow, don't know about your last statement. all i know is that daley specifically requested that restriction and just got the ok for it.

and 3 other flgihts coming from france (not air france) also just cancelled their flights to u.s.
scary.

They have been saying all along that they were concerned about airplanes being used again. This, I think, is just being vigilant. How good is Airport security in France?

news reports said intelligence was very specific it'd be foreign airlines used this time against u.s. targets. so, i think it's more than vigilant, which is a good thing.

I think airport security in European countries has always been tighter than ours.

However, it was our government that requested the flights to be canceled.

No one will say anything because it could compromise sources.

It's sad that these threats are so pronounced at this time. Here we are wishing for "Peace on earth goodwill to men" and they're trying to terrorize again.

My prayer right now will be that any terrorism plans will be averted. And hopefully, if we make it through the holiday season my prayer will have been answered.

God bless our military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all parts of the world along with those doing their best to protect us here in the states.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3347313.stm

One US channel saying someone's been arrested in connection with this too.

I too think that there must have been very credible evidence of terror activity to cancel these flights. In regards to foreign security: on our return trip to the US from CDG, we honestly thought the security was laughable. I hate to say it, but it was true. We were in a very long line to answer the "who packed your bag?" question (if you didn?t pack it, or had something in there you shouldn?t do they really think a terrorist will tell them?) and then screeners hand checked bags - but they would pick some one in line and then everyone moved through without an issue until the screener was done with the first person's bag and then they would tell the next person who happened to be standing in front of them that they would hand check their bag (by now 25 people or so had sailed on through while they were checking bag #1) the bags were finally x-rayed at the gate, and then there were more questions before we boarded our NWA flight; where has you bag been since you got here? And my favorite" what did you have for LUNCH?? Yes folks, they asked the man ahead of me that idiotic question. I hate to tell people how lax the security was, and I for one a very glad that someone had the good sense to cancel these flights today as it seems that their certainly was something "up".

I just saw a report on MSNBC that it was not airport security they were worried about. They believe that Al Qaeda has infiltrated Air France and may have some members as working Air France Pilots. I had read a report yesterday about fears that some pilots working on foreign airlines may be Al Qaeda members, but they did not identify any airlines. Today, they said that they have information that Air France may have been infiltrated. It appears that was the reason for the cancellations and perhaps the increased security level.

I hope there was a sound reason.
If the terrorists actually did something diabolical, I fear it would bring air traffic in the US to a total halt.

Ummm, didn't the terrorists do something diabolical just 2 years ago?
That was your example of what happens when terrorists strike via the airline system.