TWO of Britain's biggest airlines are fitting reinforced cockpit doors to prevent suicide hijackers storming the flight deck.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are strengthening the doors with armour plating and fitting locks which can only be operated by the pilots.
Virgin unveiled its first armour-plated door on a New York-bound plane from Heathrow.
The plane was carrying British emergency workers to help with the recovery effort at the World Trade Centre in New York.
Virgin's new cockpit door - which has an aluminium and steel deadbolt on the inside - is among a series of new security measures introduced since the September 11 attacks.
A BA spokesman said full-length metal armour plates would be fitted onto the cockpit doors in all its 340 planes "in the very near future".
BA, which is spending £1m on beefed-up security, is also considering measures such as CCTV and sky marshals.
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