Noel Forgeard, the former EADS chief executive, has been detained by police for a further 24 hours, signalling the determination of the authorities to pursue insider trading claims against senior figures in the European aerospace industry.

Mr Forgeard's arrest sent tremors through Airbus, EADS' aircraft manufacturing business, whose managers, including Thomas Enders, the chief executive, are also braced for a police summons in connection with the inquiry.

Mr Forgeard was detained in Paris on Wednesday and held overnight for questioning amid claims he earned millions of euros through illegal dealing in 2005 and 2006.

A French legal source said detectives had been given permission to hold him for a further day.

He is likely to be interviewed by Xaviere Simeoni, the magistrate in charge of the inquiry, at the end of his detention, which can last a maximum of 48 hours.

She will decide whether to place Mr Forgeard - once the most powerful figure in Europe's aerospace industry - under formal investigation on suspicion of insider dealing.

He is accused of selling 360,000 EADS' shares in November 2005 and March 2006 for a total of €4,342,480 in the knowledge that their value would plummet when problems at Airbus factories building the group's flagship A380 were made public.

Official documents show he exercised an option to buy the shares at a price of between €15 and €17 and sold them at €32.01.

In June 2006, the A380 production delays were revealed - wiping 26 per cent off EADS' share price.

Mr Forgeard was forced to stand down in July 2006, but obtained a €8.5 million golden parachute.

A report by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) pointed to 'massive' insider dealing by 17 current and former executives at EADS and Airbus, who sold a total of 1,708,600 shares for almost €20 million.

These include Mr Enders, who made €711,750, John Leahy, Airbus' chief salesman, who made €3,128,075, Fabrice Bre[accute]gier, Airbus's chief operating officer, who made €717,300 and Francis Auque, chief exeutive of EADS' space division, who made €365,000.

According to the AMF, they were in possession of privileged information about the A380 turmoil and should have abstained from exercising their stock options.

All face the prospect of following Mr Forgeard for questioning by the Paris police financial brigade.

But like him, they deny any wrongdoing and claim they were unaware of the A380 production difficulties when they sold EADS' stock.

The AMF report also denounced EADS' two core shareholders, Lagardere, the French media group, and Daimler, the German carmaker, over the sale of stock for almost €2 billion each in April 2006.

They, too, deny insider trading claims.

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