Terror from the air - al-Qaida's previous plots to attack the west

The Bojinka plot (1995) A plan, named after a Serbo-Croat term for explosion, to bring down as many as 12 US-bound airliners using liquid-based explosives was foiled after a fire broke out in a Manila apartment, which had been converted into a bomb factory. September 11 2001 Nearly 3,000 victims died after 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airliners. Two were crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York, a third hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. The shoe-bomber (2001) Richard Reid, a Briton, tries to blow up a transatlantic flight with explosives packed in his shoes. Another Briton, Saajid Badat, later admits to conspiring with Reid to blow up passenger planes. The liquid bomb plot (2006) British authorities carry out arrests in the UK, foiling a plot to blow up at least seven transatlantic flights from London using liquid explosives smuggled on board inside soft drink bottles. Christmas Day plot (2009) Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, is arrested at Detroit airport after allegedly trying to detonate an explosive device concealed in his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam to the US city.