DORCHESTER businessman Peter Noble is among passengers being warned by BA that they travelled on aircraft found to have traces of the poison that killed former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

He said: "I flew back from Istanbul to Heathrow on November 3 on one of the three Boeing aircraft that are now grounded because traces of Polonium 210 were found on them.

"I checked the BA website and realised that my flight was on one of those planes.

"The website advises calling NHS Direct for advice - but when I rang the number given by BA and on the NHS Direct website I couldn't get connected. To be honest, I'm not worried - with radiation sickness, if you've got it you certainly know you've got it."

Mr Noble, who lives at Poundbury, was in Istanbul on a business trip with his Team Xtreme team that puts on shows all over the world.

He said: "In my case I flew back on the flight very soon after that incident happened.

"Even so, I'm not worried but I thought I'd call NHS Direct, only to find I couldn't get connected."

Mr Noble said he had read newspaper reports about the planes known to have flown between Moscow and London around the time of the poisoning. He said he realised he would be among the 33,000 people who had travelled on them.

He said: "I haven't had any contact from BA and I'm not surprised about that. I checked on the website anyway."

He added: "It makes you think, though. I travel quite a bit and it shows you that these things can happen."

Mr Noble, a former scientist in electronics and physics, said: "As far as I'm aware I'm OK.

"What I have got is a bit of a cold - and I know that it's an ordinary British cold."