page_title: 2010 transatlantic aircraft bomb plot
section_title: Locating the bombs
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 transatlantic aircraft bomb plot / Locating the bombs
caption_attribution_description: Interior Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., January 16, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
context_page_description: On October 29, 2010, two packages, each containing a bomb consisting of 300 to 400 grams of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's security chief. They were bound from Yemen to the United States, and were discovered at en route stop-overs, one at East Midlands Airport in the UK and one in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
  One week later, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took responsibility for the plot, and for the crash of UPS Airlines Flight 6. U.S. and British authorities believed Anwar al-Awlaki of AQAP was behind the bombing attempts, and that the bombs were most likely constructed by AQAP's main explosives expert, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. The bombs were probably designed to detonate mid-air, with the intention of destroying both planes over Chicago or another city in the U.S. Each bomb had already been transported on passenger and cargo planes at the time of discovery.
context_section_description: On October 28, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister in charge of Counter-terrorism, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, called John Brennan, the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and former Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Riyadh to warn him of the plot. The Saudis provided the U.S. and Germany with the tracking numbers and destinations of the packages, and told them to look for toner cartridges. The packages had been dropped off by a woman at FedEx and UPS offices in Sana'a, Yemen, on October 27, and were scheduled to arrive in Chicago on November 1.
  Saudi Arabia had reportedly learned of the plot through Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi, a former Guantánamo Bay detention camp inmate who had been handed over to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation in 2006. Al-Faifi had escaped in 2008 and re-joined AQAP, but turned himself in to Saudi authorities on October 16, 2010, and provided them with information about the plot. Yemen officials suspected al-Faifi had not actually rejoined al-Qaeda, but had become a double agent. They said his tip appeared to be based on more recent information than al-Faifi could access, and that the information must have come from a Saudi double agent in AQAP.
caption: Prince Muhammad bin Nayef (photo) warned the U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser of the bomb plot
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D4", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2013:01:16 19:15:57", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "2364", "Image XPComment": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "[0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5256", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7755", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "640", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:01:16 10:03:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:01:16 10:03:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light not detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "62", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "523", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "656", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2500", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1664", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5120", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "62", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "5cec3e8880f0e8b21fba70251a1ef156", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}