Terror plot: jurors see bomb test video

5:08pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

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FOOTAGE of the devastation wreaked by a replica liquid bomb was shown to jurors at the trial of eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic flights.

The men - including two from High Wycombe - are accused of plotting to smuggle deadly explosives disguised as soft drinks onto planes and detonate them in mid-air.

Six cameras captured the explosion of the improvised device made from an Oasis soft drinks bottle inside a reinforced chamber at a Government laboratory.

One camera a few feet away was totally destroyed and the protective 12mm glass in front of a second was broken by the force of the blast.

High speed film also revealed fragments of the bottle and the test equipment flying across the room.

Pieces of metal were embedded in thick high-density plastic panels lining the bomb chamber.

Jurors were also shown the wreckage of the test stand and the 5mm aluminium "witness plate" below the device.

Scientist Keith Ritchie told Woolwich Crown Court said staff used a plastic Oasis bottle containing a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and sugar fruit concentrate.

A metal lever was then used to lower a detonator made of the high-explosive HMTD into the top of the bottle.

Mr Ritchie told the court: "The detonator was put into the top of the bottle by remote. The operator left the room and went to a protective area.

"At that point he lowered the arm and detonator into the bottle. At that point the device became live."

Mr Ritchie said the room was a "heavy block cell designed to withstand explosions up to a certain power".

Jurors were shown still photographs of the chamber before and after the explosion.

The plastic panels lining the chamber were blown on to the floor and the stand on which the bomb was placed was destroyed.

A camera placed in the chamber a few feet from the device recorded only the start of the test but was destroyed by the explosion, the court heard.

The camera looking into the cell was protected by 12mm laminated glass which cracked and a 25mm panel of armoured glass. It was able to record the sound of the explosion.

Three cameras outside the chamber at a greater distance revealed the shockwave caused by the blast.

A sixth high speed camera revealed the flash of light resulting from the explosion and fragments of material flying through the air.

Mr Ritchie explained: "They were probably the fragments of the bottle or the firing rig, anything in the room at the time really."

The judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told jurors that they should focus on the possible effect of such a device on a plane and passengers.

But he added that there was no evidence the plotters ever manufactured a working homemade bomb and said: "This is a charge of conspiracy, not an allegation there was an actual attempt."

Assad Sarwar, 27, of Walton Drive and Umar Islam, formerly of High Wycombe are accused with Ahmed Abdulla Ali, 27, Tanvir Hussain, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Waheed Zaman, 23 and Mohammed Gulzar, 26.

They all deny conspiracy to murder and to endanger aircraft. The trial continues.

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