Opinion ID: 781722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preparation for Airline Bombing Conspiracy

Text: 20 In August 1994, after the bombing of the World Trade Center, and his flight from the United States, Yousef traveled to Manila under an alias. By September, Yousef had developed an elaborate plan to bomb a dozen United States-flag aircraft and recorded that plan on his laptop computer. According to the plan, five individuals would plant bombs aboard twelve United States-flag aircraft operating on routes in Southeast Asia. Each conspirator would board an airliner in Southeast Asia, assemble a bomb on board the plane, and leave the aircraft at its first stop. The timebombs would detonate during the second leg of each of the targeted flights. Eleven of the twelve flights were ultimately destined for cities in the United States. Each of the targeted aircraft was capable of carrying up to 280 people. 21 After Yousef had formulated his airline bombing plan, he began to acquire the information and the ingredients necessary to carry it out. Yousef compiled detailed flight data on the twelve aircraft, including their departing times, flight numbers, flight durations and aircraft types, and transferred this information to his laptop computer. In early November 1994, Yousef placed a large order for chemicals and equipment in Manila, and, during the next two months, he and his co-conspirators performed several tests in preparation for the aircraft bombings. On December 1, 1994, Yousef and Shah conducted a test by placing a bomb under a patron's seat at the Greenbelt movie theater in Manila. At 10:30 p.m., the bomb exploded, injuring several people. Ten days later, on December 11, Yousef planted another test bomb under the seat of a passenger on a Philippine Airlines jet flying from Manila to Cebu (another city in the Philippines) and then to Japan. Yousef disembarked from the plane in Cebu. Two hours after the aircraft departed from Cebu, the bomb exploded, killing one Japanese passenger and injuring others. 22 In late December, Murad traveled from the Middle East to the Philippines, and Shah, who had left the Philippines immediately after the movie theater bombing, returned to Manila under an assumed name. Thus, by January 1995, the conspirators were assembled in Manila and ready to carry out their attack on twelve United States flag aircraft. But for a fire in the defendants' apartment in Manila, the plan might have succeeded.