THE planes targeted by the plotters could have been in the air at the same time when they were blown up, Woolwich Crown Court court also heard today.

The men planned to smuggle liquid explosive aboard the aircraft disguised as soft drinks, it was alleged.

This emerged as part of the trial involving Wycombe terror suspect Assad Ali Sarwar. He is alleged to be one of three key figures at the centre of the plot to blow up seven aeroplanes in mid-air.

Flight times had been "cut and pasted" from data supplied by aircraft timetable firm Inovator, the court was told.

Prosecutor Peter Wright said: "When one examines what was found on this particular memory stick, certain features became apparent."

He said the accused appeared to be mainly interested in one-way flights. They didn't appear to share a similar interest in flying back to the United Kingdom on a return flight.

The details that had been cut and pasted were of outbound flights from London Heathrow. There was a "particular interest" in flights between August 2 2006 and late October 2006.

Jurors were shown a map of the world with the flight patterns of seven planes plotted onto it. These aircraft were operated by American Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada.

Mr Wright said on a typical day all seven planes would have been in the air by 4:07pm.

Mr Wright said: "If each of these aircraft was successfully blown up the potential for loss of life was indeed considerable and there would have been little if any chance of saving any of them from their impending disaster.

"All of these airplanes would have taken off from Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport"

The diagram showed that if the bombs were detonated successfully at 9.36pm then six would be over the United States.

Yet the plotters also spoke about planes taking off from different terminals, he said, and up to 18 suicide bombers could have been involved.

The court was then shown, on computer screens, an address book which Mr Wright said was found in Ali's left hand pocket. Inside there were handwritten lists which included items such as batteries and the soft drinks Oasis and Lucozade.

One of the entries said "check time taken to dilute in HP" This, Mr Wright said, referred to hydrogen peroxide, which is a central component of a home made liquid explosive.

The address book also said "select date five days before" and "all link up prepare". It also said "one drink use other keep in pocket maybe."

Mr Wright said: "At the time of his arrest Mr Ali was asked to account for the diary in particular the references to the batteries and soft drinks.

"He chose to lie, saying he couldn't remember."

It was heard the plotters intended to create an explosion with hydrogen peroxide concealed in Tang powder, usually used to create soft drinks.

Mr Wright said: "What the bombers intended to do was carry hydrogen peroxide mixed with Tang or other similar organic material onto the aircraft in their hand luggage disguised as 500ml bottles of Oasis or Lucozade type soft drinks.

"The mixture was to be detonated by some form of home made detonator. In all likelihood this was to be a chemical composition called hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD).

He said the explosive charge needed to detonate the liquid would be disguised as AA 1.5 volt batteries.

The batteries would be cut open, the contents removed and packed with HMTD along with an electrical element such as a light bulb.

This would then be connected to a power source such a disposable camera and used as a detonator.

He said this was "easily assembled once you have the component parts".

Small holes would have been drilled in the base of the liquid bottles to empty the contents. This would have been resealed using superglue or a similar substance and the explosive liquid injected using a syringe.

Mr Wright said: "When considering the explosive and detonator and their potential effects then the contents of the diary begin to make sense."

The trial continues. All eight accused deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to endanger life on an aircraft.