GREECE said yesterday the TWA aircraft which exploded after take off from New York underwent strict security and safety checks during a stop in Athens on Wednesday.
The airplane underwent strict checks at Athens airport - a triple check by airline employees as well as state employees for passengers, baggage and hand luggage, and tickets," the government spokesman, Mr Dimitris Reppas, said.
"There was also a check by the private security company which is employed by the airline," he said. The TWA plane had arrived from New York, spent several, hours on the ground at Hellenikon Airport in Athens, and then returned to New York, where it spent another five hours on the ground.
"It finished its flight to Kennedy, stayed there for several hours, had a check there beyond the restocking of fuel and food. We believe anything that happened must have happened long after the completion of the flight from Athens to New York," he said.
"It would be inconceivable" to search Tour the cause of the airliner's destruction at Athens airport, Mr Reppas insisted.
It was revealed yesterday that Flight 800 used to go on to Israel. TWA spokesman, Mr Gilbert, Dennemont, told reporters at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris the flight used to be a New York Paris Tel Aviv flight until last January, when the Israel leg was discontinued.
Officials have said it is too early to establish the cause of the accident but speculation it might have been a terrorist bomb was widespread.
Greece is extremely sensitive about allegations that Athens airport is lax on security. Greece gained a reputation of being lax on terrorism in the 1980s which culminated in a US travel advisory in 1985 to avoid the airport.
That advisory, lifted two months later, was blamed by Athens for crippling the tourist trade. It had been prompted by a bomb blast on a TWA plane near Athens, which killed four people.
In 1986, a TWA flight was hijacked shortly after taking off from Athens airport for Rome. It was forced to land in Beirut.
Washington often criticised the 1981-1989 governments of the late socialist prime minister, Mr Andreas Papandreou, saying he was soft on Middle East and European extremists.
Athens reacted angrily earlier this year when the US again warned American travellers that security measures at Athens airport failed to meet international standards. The warning was lifted in April.
"There is tight security at Athens airport after the lifting of the US warning," a Greek civil aviation official said.
Mr Reppas said security measures at Athens airport had increased recently because of the rise in traffic during the summer.
Civil aviation officials said the TWA plane was at Athens airport for about five hours before flying to New York.