In the wake of last week's foiled terror plot to blow up US-bound planes flying out of London, questions arose over how prepared west London is to cope with large scale aircraft disasters.

With jumbo jets flying overhead every minute and a half, residents living and working under the flight path have wondered how emergency services would cope if a terrorist explosion occurred here.

Explaining how it would respond to such an event, Richmond upon Thames Council's contingencies manager, Mike Long, said: "Statistically, aviation incidents are extremely rare and Richmond is at no greater risk than anywhere in the world on a flight path.

"I would say it is good to know our neighbouring boroughs will assist, should a major incident occur."

Terrorist strategy expert Dr Peter R Neumann of King's College London, said: "In terms of debris falling from a crash over a town centre during rush hour, the damage on the ground could be larger than from the aircraft.

"If it came down in somewhere like Richmond, it would be two to three hundred versus something like 1,000 to 1,500 people on the ground."

He said a terrorist explosion over the borough is unlikely because low-flying planes over Richmond are on their way to land. And historically terrorist plots aim for simultaneous explosions in the first half of flights.

Dr Neumann said: "This is certainly the pattern that has emerged with events like 9-11, the Madrid bombings and the London bombings. That seems to be their mode of operation.

"However, it is not totally impossible, but it would be a break in their pattern."

It would be also unlikely because terrorists try to explode planes into landmarks.

He said: "It's what they did on 9-11 with the Twin Towers. They tried the same thing in Paris in 1994 with the Eiffel Tower and then there was the London Tube last summer."

Borough Commander of the fire brigade, Nigel Sawyer, said due to the low probability of it happening the brigade only runs through theory practices of how they would deal with a plane crash in the borough.

He said: "We might run a table top exercise based on something maybe falling out of the sky, but nothing particularly extravagant."

He said last week the brigade maintained close contact with Heathrow airport and the Met Police's anti-terrorist branch.

Richmond police have also revealed that they have had to deal with tension in parts of the borough with greater Muslim populations.

Richmond borough Superintendent Jim Davis said the immediate concern for Richmond police last week was "community cohesion", as the security clampdown was centered at Heathrow.

He said increased tensions in parts of the borough resulted from news of the terror plot and a number of arrests were made following an attack in Heathfield.

He said: "Maintaining community cohesion was our greatest risk. This is not an attack by Muslims, but a small number of extremists.

"Our concern is public reassurance. We deal with anybody who threatens this very robustly at all times and we will target them relentlessly."