BOSTON —  Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will activate the National Guard to help with security at Logan International Airport for the first time since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The security alert was raised at Logan and airports around the nation early Thursday after officials in Great Britain disrupted a terror plot to blow up airplanes from London to the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the alleged plot appeared to be engineered by Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that hijacked two planes from Logan on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, confirmed the governor was activating the guard. Romney met first thing in the day with public safety and transportation officials to get a status report and consider any additional response to the thwarted plot.