Jet Threat Scrambles Crews; Shows Switch Topics on a Dime as Terrorism Plot Unveiled.(TV Currents)(London airline bombing plot)

Byline: Michele Greppi

The first message that hit NBC News President Steve Capus' pager at 1:13 a.m. last Thursday "was vague enough that it didn't set off the alarms,'' he said. "`U.K. police arrest several in plot to blow up U.K.-to-U.S. flights.'''

Two hours later, the message on Mr. Capus' pager was "homeland security raises security levels.''

By then, all the network news organizations in the U.S. were in full scramble with their London crews to assemble reports on the arrests of 24 people who had planned to blow up to 10 U.S.-bound planes out of the sky.

In a matter of a few hours, morning shows had to be re-booked with terrorism experts substituting for chefs, movie stars and mystery authors as the three network news divisions raced to bring their morning viewers complete, polished reports that would distinguish their programs. ABC, CBS and NBC news staffs rushed to establish satellite uplinks and feeds, and set up special reports to break the news to waking viewers whose local programming was interrupted.

Once the news broke Thursday of an exposed terrorism plot to blow up planes with liquid explosives, passengers by the thousands, from London to Los Angeles and beyond, were discarding their carry-on liquids and gels in hope of getting through the masses of humanity queuing up in airport terminals and onto their planes.

A number of those stacked up in the airports were frequent-flying television correspondents with, of course, their cellphones. The cells got audio out of some airports more reliably than they transmitted video.