After days of chaos at Britain’s airports following the discovery of the alleged terrorist plot, the blame game has begun.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh condemned BAA – owner of Heathrow and Gatwick airports – for operational failures that forced BA to cancel flights. BAA’s chief executive Stephen Nelson responded by storming round to Walsh’s offices for a showdown. Meanwhile, Ryanair’s combustible chief Michael O’Leary threatened to sue the government if it didn’t meet his demand that troops be drafted in to help.

All this macho nonsense has done nothing for the reputation of the airline business. I suspect blame is evenly shared:  the government seems to have  rushed through the new security measures without thinking through the consequences. Yet it’s easy to imagine the reaction had it not responded and a tragedy resulted. BAA hasn’t covered itself in glory – but given the number of people passing through its airports in August glory was hardly on the cards. (That said, BAA isn’t brilliant at the best of times: Gatwick was in chaos when we flew to Croatia in June. Even at 5am, it took over an hour to check in our luggage because luggage belts weren’t working.)

O’Leary has responded with his characteristic chutzpah – but the threat to sue the government is surely a diversion, designed to create headlines and take the PR pressure off Ryanair for charging people to check in luggage.

For me, the most disturbing story of the week was the BA jet  held on the runway at LA for 30 hours – yes, 30 hours – by the Americans. Our principal ally held a British aircraft, its crew and passengers hostage for over a day. No security scare can justify this kind of outrageous behaviour.