Original subtitles

A deadly explosion rocks an airliner flying at 10,000 metres.

A bomb has exploded onboard. Bravo-Oscar-Mike-Bravo.

The blast kills a passenger and cripples the plane.

The crew struggles to save 293 lives.

The bombing sets in motion an international manhunt.

Stop!

While the terrorist...

...prepares to strike again.

3,000?

- We're not getting any oxygen! - We have the terrain alarm. - Aero Peru 603...

We are in an emergency...

On December the 11th, 1994,

Philippine Airlines Flight 434 is two hours into the second leg

of a routine flight from Manila to Tokyo.

An unsuspecting passenger is sitting on a ticking bomb.

The explosion onboard cripples the flight control system.

Unless the pilot can regain control,

the jumbo jet may crash into the Pacific Ocean.

This is Philippine Airlines 434.

A bomb has exploded onboard. Bravo-Oscar-Mike-Bravo.

The bombing is a frightening new development

by a terrorist on the cutting edge of science.

The way that the timing device was hidden inside the Casio watch, um,

just made the whole thing very concealable and, uh,

very worrisome.

But this is more than the hunt for a terrorist bomber.

This is a story of how investigators make a shocking discovery.

The explosion on PAL 434 is only a test

for an attack on American carriers.

An attack that would dwarf every other terrorist atrocity at the time.

It's before sunrise on December the 11th, 1994.

While most inhabitants of this city of a 1.5 million have a few more hours to sleep,

26-year-old Armaldo Forlani makes an early start.

Forlani is not his real name; it's the alias he's chosen for today's mission.

He's actually from Pakistan, not Italy.

He is putting his latest invention through an important test.

Everything must go like clockwork.

In his line of work, there's no room for error.

He is a highly skilled terrorist bomb builder.

He packs the liquid-explosive bomb very carefully.

From his apartment downtown, it takes less than 30 minutes to get to the airport.

He arrives in plenty of time for his 5 a.m. flight with Philippine Airlines.

Before he can board,

the bomber must outwit airport-security screening procedures.

He's designed the components of his bomb to pass undetected

by X-ray and metal-detection equipment.

Or so he hopes.

He bought the ticket as Armaldo Forlani.

He's a skilled forger,

and he has made himself a fake Italian passport with that identity.

If his cover is blown,

his career as a globetrotting terrorist is over.

Having successfully got the bomb through airport security,

he boards his Philippine Airlines flight.

The final destination of PAL 434 is Tokyo.

But there's a stopover in the Philippine resort town of Cebu,

over 550 kilometres to the south of Manila.

This is as far as the bomber is flying today.

That's 10,000 feet, and weather still looking clear.

Thanks, Dex. I'm engaging autopilot.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

This is your captain, Ed Reyes, speaking.

Welcome aboard Flight 434,

flying south from Manila to Cebu,

and continuing onwards to Narita Airport, Tokyo.

Flight 434 is under the command of Captain Ed Reyes,

a former Air Force pilot who's been flying

for Philippine Airlines for nine years.

...and our estimated arrival time is now 5:45.

The weather...

The first leg of the flight is fairly empty.

Passengers are scattered around the jumbo jet's 400 seats.

After takeoff, the bomber is able to move.

He chooses seat 26K,

located directly over the centre fuel tank in some 747s.

The cabin is tended by stewardess Maria de La Cruz.

She flies domestic routes,

and has worked for Philippine Airlines for one year.

- Can I get you some juice or coffee? - Juice, please.

Now the bomber must find a vacant lavatory to assemble the explosive device.

Arming the bomb only takes minutes,

but requires total concentration.

The final step is setting the timer

so it will explode in four hours' time,

long after he leaves the plane.

He hides the bomb in the life-jacket pocket underneath his seat.

He then changes seats.

When she returns,

Maria de la Cruz notices that the roving passenger has moved seats again.

She will remember that he left his breakfast untouched,

and that the rest of the flight passed uneventfully.

As Philippine Airlines Flight 434 begins its final approach into Cebu,

more passengers are getting ready to board the aircraft

that will take them onwards to Tokyo.

Cabin crew, prepare for landing.

Cabin doors to automatic.

PAL 434 lands in Cebu at 6:50 a.m.,

and several of the passengers disembark,

including the bomber with the alias Armaldo Forlani.

Bye-bye. Thank you.

Maria de la Cruz will also leave Flight 434.

A new cabin crew will take over for the 4.5-hour flight to Tokyo.

256 new passengers board the 747 that arrived from Manila.

Many of the passengers in this cabin are Japanese.

Among them is 24-year-old engineer Haruki Ikegami.

He's looking forward to getting home to Tokyo after his first trip overseas.

Airport congestion delays the departure by 38 minutes,

but the timer on the bomb under seat 26K continues to tick.

8.30 a, m., Dec the 11th, 1994.

All passengers for Philippine Airlines Flight 434

are now onboard for the leg to Tokyo.

None of them is aware that two hours earlier,

a terrorist planted a timebomb under one of their seats.

Steward Fernando Bayot is assisting passengers in the forward cabin

on this 4.5-hour flight.

At 8:38, PAL 434 is cleared for takeoff.

On the flight deck,

Captain Ed Reyes is assisted by First Officer Jaime Herrera

and systems engineer Dexter Comendador.

Reyes and Comendador are both former Air Force pilots.

Haruki Ikegami is seated in 26K,

the seat occupied by the bomber earlier,

on the first leg of Flight 434 from Manila to Cebu.

Several passengers in this cabin are coworkers,

travelling with a Japanese tour group,

including Keisuke Aoki and Masaharu Mochizuki.

After takeoff, everything seemed normal.

We were flying at 10,000 metres.

I was reading a magazine, then the meal was served.

After eating, I went to sleep.

Thirty-one-year-old Yukihiko Usui stayed up all night

on the last day of his trip,

and he's ready to nap after breakfast.

He's sitting in row 27,

one row behind the seat vacated by the bomber four hours earlier.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.

It's a beautiful day in Tokyo, sunny and 26 degrees.

I expect we'll be landing at Narita Airport in two hours' time.

Two hours into the flight, PAL 434 is cruising on autopilot,

10,000 metres above Minami-Daito Island, southern Japan.

To ease the pilot's workload,

the autopilot remains on throughout the flight,

keeping the aircraft on a constant heading and altitude.

"God, forgive me."

That was my...

inner, uh...

uh, thought, you know.

"God, forgive me. I think I'm going to die now."

Then, after that, I had to do what I had to do.

- Oh, I've lost control! - I have control!

Dex, check the pressurization loss. Be prepared.

- Checking... - Although the autopilot instantly corrects

the aircraft's bank to the right,

the effect of the blast is far from over.

There was a loud bang, which woke me up.

I could feel the plane expanding from the pressure.

I saw smoke, as well as debris, falling like powder.

Ladies and gentlemen, please stay in your seat!

The injured people were trying to get away from the area where the bomb was.

Sit down!

I stood up and saw that a lot of people were bleeding.

I thought my life was over.

Stay in your seat, please! The cabin crew's first priority

is to stop passengers leaving their seats.

Yukihiko Usui is sitting in the row directly behind the explosion.

Both his legs are badly wounded.

Steward Fernando Bayot moves him away from the blast site.

Get me some blankets here!

Please sit down and fasten your seatbelts!

Bayot's now turned his attention to Haruki Ikegami.

He has been swallowed by the smoking hole where seat 26K used to be.

I saw this man.

Only his head and his arms were peering out of the hole,

so I tried to, uh, pull him out.

After the struggle to lift him out,

Bayot realizes that part of the lower half of Ikegami's body is missing.

Within a couple of minutes, he dies.

The cabin crew do not want Ikegami's death to panic passengers,

so they pretend to minister to him.

Bayot then reports to the captain.

Captain!

Okay.

Keep the passengers calm. Make sure they stay in their seats.

There's been an explosion in row 26.

One dead and several injured and the cabin's full of smoke. There's a hole in the floor.

Go inspect the damage, Dex. - Yes, sir.

Reyes's first concern is that the blast could make a hole in the aircraft's skin.

This would lead to sudden depressurization in the cabin,

and necessitate an emergency descent.

There was a huge, gaping hole, uh, beside her,

and if a small...

tear in the skin of the aircraft was, uh...

If there were a hole there,

it most probably would open up,

and then pull us out of the aircraft.

When I saw that there was no damage...

to the outer skin,

I went up and reported to the captain.

Well, we assumed that the pressurization system would hold.

Immediately after the explosion,

the co-pilot's steering wheel slams to the right,

and the aircraft banks in the same direction.

The autopilot immediately corrects the deviation.

But soon Reyes discovers that the autopilot steering system

is another victim of the blast.

Then I said, "Okay, I'm going to try to turn the airplane using the autopilot."

But there was no reaction. Whether I tried it...

to make it go down or up, or left and right turns, no reaction.

I said, "Now we have a problem."

This is not Reyes's only problem.

In the cabin, one of the injured passengers needs urgent medical attention.

Tokyo is still 2.5 hours away,

and Reyes decides to try and land at Naha Airport,

on the Island of Okinawa, located 74 kilometres to the west.

He orders the co-pilot to make a Mayday call.

Yes, sir.

Naha, PAL 434. Heavy, declaring emergency.

Explosion onboard. We have casualties.

Requesting emergency landing at Naha.

We will need full emergency services on landing.

PAL 434, Naha.

Please repeat. Say again.

Naha, PAL 434. Heavy, declaring emergency.

Explosion onboard. We have casualties.

Request emergency landing at Naha. We will need full emergency...

Getting the Japanese air-traffic controller

to understand the emergency proves to be difficult.

Naha, Naha, Naha, this is Philippine Airlines 434.

Flight level: 330.

A bomb has exploded onboard. Bravo-Oscar-Mike-Bravo.

Bomb explosion. Request emergency landing at Naha.

And there was silence.

Then the controller came in, another controller, an American.

"Okay, Philippine 434, I'm taking over."

The American air-traffic controller

is from an American base on Okinawa.

"Turn left, heading..."

No, I shout back: "We cannot turn at this moment yet.

We will tell you when we are starting to turn towards Naha.

We have problems with our flight controls."

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.

We will be making an early landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa.

We'll be landing as soon as possible.

So please remain in your seat with your seatbelt fastened.

But landing at Naha is easier said than done.

The autopilot is not responding to any of Reyes's commands,

and PAL 434 is heading straight past Okinawa.

Reyes must find a way to steer if he is to have any chance of landing safely.

Ah.

But disengaging the autopilot might result in losing what minimal control

he still has over the aircraft.

Okay.

Let's keep the seatbelt sign on. When we disengage the autopilot,

we might lose control, so be ready.

Since the autopilot won't react to any inputs that I make,

I was scared if I disengaged the autopilot...

...the aircraft might make a sudden bank to the right

that we might not be able to control.

At the count of three, I'll disengage.

One... two...

three.

One, two, three, tack!

Nothing happened.

And then there was... We were relieved.

I can't turn using the controls.

Ah, looks like the explosion jammed the ailerons. Dex...

What does the QRH say about jammed ailerons?

The QRH, or Quick Reference Handbook,

is the pilot's bible that lists procedures

that must be followed in emergency situations.

"Jammed Flight Controls: use maximum force possible,

including both pilots if required."

Okay. Let's force it, then.

Reyes tries brute force to activate the ailerons,

the panels on each wing which turn the aircraft.

Since the explosion, he can only fly straight.

I'm not getting anything from the ailerons. Can't get off this heading.

Okay, re-engage the autopilot while I work out other options.

It's taking much longer to land than was announced.

We were told it would only be 20 minutes,

but it was really one hour before we landed.

It was very frightening.

Although they survived the bombing,

passengers are now getting anxious about landing safely in Naha Airport.

Since there was so much time before landing,

I started writing a will.

I wrote the will to my son, telling him to be strong.

As PAL 434 looks like missing Naha Airport,

Reyes comes up with another plan.

We gotta turn. We'll have to use differential power.

Disengage auto-throttle, pull back three and four.

Captain Reyes increases thrust to the engines

on the left-hand side of the plane

and reduces power to the engines on the right.

Very slowly, the aircraft starts to circle right.

He then lowers his speed to make a smaller radius turn.

With guidance from Air Traffic Control,

Reyes hopes that the manoeuvre will eventually line him up with the runway at Naha.

So while we were descending on low speed,

I tried to test the flight controls,

and there are some little reactions.

The elevator is beginning to respond.

The elevator is a control that makes the plane ascend and descend.

250 knots. Flaps: 1. On speed.

In order to land safely,

Captain Reyes will need at least minimal control over the elevator and rudder.

As PAL 434 nears Naha, he continues to reduce his airspeed.

10.

Flaps 10 set. Speed: 225.

- Okay, she's turning. - Sir, if we reduce our weight,

we will be able to reduce our approach and landing speeds. Suggest we dump fuel.

Reyes orders the systems engineer to dump 36 tons of fuel.

Less fuel means less strain on landing gear and brakes at touchdown.

Check.

I was terrified when I saw the smoke trail behind each wing.

I thought something must be burning,

and there would be another explosion.

As the time to touch down gets closer,

Reyes worries that the bomb may have done

more as-yet-unknown damage to the aircraft.

I'm not certain our landing gear will hold up.

Strap yourself in.

I'll brief the purser.

So he talked to the head of the cabin crew and he said,

"We're not sure if the gears will go down.

And in case the gears collapse while landing, be ready to evacuate.

It's either you make it or you die.

That's... But you cannot do anything anymore.

Runway in sight.

With only minimal control over the aircraft,

Reyes faces the most challenging landing of his career.

10,000 metres above the Pacific Ocean on a flight from the Philippines to Tokyo...

...a terrorist bomb cripples the flight controls of a jumbo jet.

As PAL 434 starts its final approach,

the 290 people onboard are pinning their hopes of survival

on the skill of Captain Ed Reyes.

I know everybody was scared.

We are all scared. I know that.

Gear down.

The gears were supposed to come down a few seconds,

but that was the longest seconds that...

Because we were waiting for the greens to come on.

- Take a long time. - It took a long time.

It was a long few seconds until it...

when it locked.

- Three green, sir. - Okay.

I'm disconnecting the autopilot and landing manually, okay? Dex?

Monitor my descent rate, call altitude and speed. 30.

- Okay, 500 feet, on course. - Flaps 30 set.

Help me with the elevator. When I say push, I want you to push.

- Okay, 200, slightly left. - Correcting. Push.

One hundred.

Fifty.

Thirty.

Power off. Pull!

Your last command was "pull!"

Yeah, my last command was "pull!"

I made sure that the throttles were closed,

because he might give a go-around,

and I wanted to make sure that we stayed on the ground.

That was close.

Okay.

- Oh... - Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking.

We would like to thank you for your cooperation and your patience.

Emergency crews are on their way.

We'll try to get you out of here as soon as possible. Thank you.

The Philippine Airlines 747

is now a crime scene under Japanese jurisdiction.

As investigators from the Okinawa Police Department

set out to solve the mystery of what happened,

they turn their attention first to the dead man in seat 26K.

The forensic pathologist recovered 94 fragments

embedded in Haruki Ikegami's buttocks by the explosion.

He suffered severe internal injuries and massive loss of blood.

But tragic as it was, the effects of the explosion could've been much worse.

If the explosion had been sideways,

it would've blown a hole in the plane...

...and caused an air-pressure problem.

In a sense, it was good that the blast was vertical...

...but we have to remember the victim.

He died to save the rest of us.

Ikegami's body bore the brunt of the upward blast,

but the explosion severed the steel cables in the ceiling

that control the rudder and elevator.

The charge also severed the co-pilot's control cable to the right aileron,

one of the control surfaces on the wing which make an aircraft bank and turn.

The downward force blew a hole in the floor,

and could've ignited the vapours in the centre fuel tank,

creating a catastrophic explosion.

But by chance, on December the 11th,

seat 26K was not located above the tank.

Fortunately for us,

we took a different version,

the SAS version of the 747, that day.

And that specific seat for that version

was two seats forward of the centre tank.

The Okinawa forensic investigators immediately start work

collecting evidence from the bomb site.

They begin with the largest fragments of debris,

and then systematically work down until the smallest particles

are retrieved by vacuum cleaner.

Japanese investigators cannot identify the bomb's detonator.

But by separating out bits of metal, plastic and electrical wire

that do not belong to the plane,

components of the bomb are pieced together.

One forensic investigator is able to identify the bomb's timer.

By reconstituting dozens of burnt fragments,

he discovers it's a modified digital wristwatch.

Investigators also discover that one of the bomb's 9-volt batteries

is only sold in the Philippines.

It's another clue that suggests that the bomber could be based there.

Philippine National Police Deputy Chief Sonny Razon is on the case.

In the later part of 1994,

we already started to receive information,

intelligence reports that there were, uh,

Middle-Eastern personalities that were here already

in the Philippines.

On the night of January the 6th, 1995,

almost four weeks after the bombing of PAL 434,

the Philippine police get a lucky break.

In his Manila apartment,

the PAL 434 bomber has enlisted the help of an accomplice

to mass-produce his new, undetectable bomb.

An attempt to burn off chemicals gets out of hand.

Acrid-smelling smoke spills out of the apartment.

It attracts the attention of the doorman, who comes to investigate.

- Hey, what's going on? - Uh...

we were playing with some fireworks, but it's okay.

We put them out and have all the windows open inside and we keep the doors closed.

It'll be fine, okay? - You open the door.

If we open the door, smoke come on the hallway. We close the window, okay?

Come on. It's okay, it's okay.

Until the smoke dissipates, the bombers decide to wait outside the apartment.

The doorman isn't convinced by their playing-with-fireworks story,

and he calls the fire department and the police.

By the time the firemen come, the smoke is gone,

and they leave after a quick check.

The bomber now realizes he's left a very sensitive item in the apartment,

and he persuades his friend to retrieve his laptop.

He was, uh, too clever a guy to come back and, uh,

expose himself.

Because all along, he knew that would be too risky,

for him to go back and be caught.

The bomber's fear of getting caught is justified.

Once Police Inspector Aida Fariscal learns that they're from Pakistan,

she insists on seeing their room for herself.

The police in Manila are on high alert

due to a planned visit by the Pope in a few days.

What Inspector Fariscal finds confirms her worst fears

about the intentions of the tenants.

You! Stop!

Stop!

The shot distracts the apprentice and he trips over a fallen palm tree.

But the cop discovers he has no handcuffs.

The doorman improvises with the drawstrings of his windbreaker.

In the meantime, the bomber vanishes.

One of the first senior officers to arrive at his apartment is Sonny Razon.

Incident at the Don Josefa apartment,

uh, was the breakthrough in, uh,

opening our eyes that, uh,

the Al-Qaeda... terrorist cell

was already operating here in the Philippines.

The Philippine National Police know they've stumbled onto something big,

and they inform Interpol, Scotland Yard and the FBI.

When news of the raid reaches the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York,

it immediately grabs the attention of Special Agent Frank Pellegrino.

For two years, he has been hunting a terrorist called Ramzi Yousef,

and it looks as if this might be his man.

Well, he was always our focus since '93.

I mean, at the time...

he was the biggest fugitive... around.

As Philippine Police comb through the apartment,

they begin to find more evidence tying Yousef to the bombing of PAL 434.

It was the similarity between the watches that were found in the apartment

and the type of watch that was used in Okinawa.

Putting together that... that watch,

that was the watch that was on the bomb,

uh, on that Flight 434,

and identifying those pieces eventually as a Casio watch was amazing.

Yousef is a skilled forger.

Investigators find several identification cards bearing various names,

and photos in each of which he looks quite different.

One ID card is of particular interest.

So almost as a dig to us, you know,

the ID card used the first World Trade Center bombing date

as the date that the card was issued.

So we knew right away it was Yousef that had been in the apartment.

They knew chemicals. The chemical dictionary, uh,

was a very well-used, uh, item,

uh... underlined, highlighted,

uh, well-read,

notations throughout the book.

Something that he used quite often.

And, uh... I don't remember the exact number.

I think there might've 100 latent prints found on that that belonged to him.

They knew electronics.

The way that the timing device was hidden inside the Casio watch...

...just made the whole thing very concealable and...

uh, and very worrisome.

The identification of the bomber of PAL 434

and the discovery of his bomb factory is very disturbing news

for those responsible for airline-passenger safety.

Ramzi Yousef is an international terrorist

who knows how to get his bombs past airport security.

Bombs that are small, but if strategically located,

can blow up a jumbo jet and kill not just one, but hundreds of people.

And the bomber of PAL 434 is still on the loose.

The Philippine National Police have stumbled on the hideout

of an international terrorist.

The FBI identify him as Ramzi Yousef.

Evidence that Armaldo Forlani,

the man who planted the bomb on PAL 434,

is the same person as Ramzi Yousef

comes from the travel agent who sold him the Philippine Airlines ticket.

Ramzi Yousef is just one of several aliases

of a man who tops the FBI's Most Wanted list.

An international terrorist with a $2 million bounty on his head.

Yousef, whose real name is probably Abdul Karim Basit,

was born and raised in Kuwait, where his father worked as an engineer.

It was there he met the friend that he enlisted to help him in the Manila bomb factory.

When he was 18, Yousef's family returned to their Pakistan homeland.

Yousef married and had two children.

Soon after returning home, his parents sent him to study in Britain.

He was taking classes both in engineering and in using the computer,

so he definitely had some talents.

In summer breaks from college in the late 1980s,

Yousef returns to Pakistan.

He puts his new engineering skills to use by teaching bomb-making

to militants in training camps near Peshawar, Pakistan.

These camps are fertile ground for making contacts with militants worldwide.

In September 1992,

Yousef flies from Pakistan to New York to prepare for a major terrorist attack.

On arrival at JFK,

he presents a fake Iraqi passport

and asks for political asylum from Saddam Hussein.

The ploy works and he's allowed to enter the country.

Six months later, on February the 26th, 1993,

one of the largest homemade bombs in American history

explodes in the garage below the World Trade Center, killing six people,

injuring hundreds and causing $500 million worth of damage.

That night, Yousef is on a plane back to his home in Pakistan.

He was an action figure. He wanted to keep doing things.

He wasn't happy with the one success he had.

Eighteen months after the World Trade Center attack,

Yousef flies to Manila to fine-tune the bomb that he plants on PAL 434.

According to Sonny Razon, the Philippine capital suits him.

Ramzi Yousef, uh...

...loved to enjoy life.

He was a... he is a ladies' man.

He associated himself with a lot of girlfriends,

and, uh, he liked to party.

He...

he also... drank a lot.

He enjoyed the life.

Terrorists, they are your normal, uh,

day-to-day people,

the, uh, guy next door.

After the bombing of PAL 434,

Yousef arranges for his childhood friend Abdul Hakim Murad

to assist him in Manila.

But on January the 6th, 1995, two weeks after his arrival,

Murad is arrested and sent to the Philippine Police headquarters for interrogation.

It took 67 days to extract the details of how Yousef planted the bomb.

My impressions of him was that, uh,

he was strong-willed,

he was determined.

Initially, he did not break down in questioning.

And, uh, it was only when, uh,

the FBI team that came in and provided us with, uh,

additional information or pieces of the puzzle

that, uh, we did not have...

...that he started to talk.

Tiny chemical traces of the explosive were found on PAL 434.

And Murad eventually admits that Yousef uses liquid nitroglycerin

that he's stabilized and concealed in a bottle of contact-lens solution.

Murad also reveals that Yousef hid

the bomb's potentially suspicious components in the heel of his shoes.

Most airport security systems only detect metal above the ankles.

I bet you he was as cool as could be.

He was somewhat cavalier in is attitude

towards these explosives and chemicals.

To carry a container of nitroglycerin on an airplane...

you know, you gotta be a little nuts.

Murad's confession provides details of Yousef's actions

after he successfully got the bomb components past airport security.

- Can I get you some juice or coffee? - Juice, please.

Yousef designed the device so the innocent-looking components

can be quickly transformed into a lethal bomb.

Yousef has modified a digital wristwatch as the bomb's timer.

This is wired to a detonator inside the bottle of nitroglycerin.

Two 9-volt batteries provide an additional electric charge

to the exposed filament of a light bulb that will spark the explosion.

Yousef sets the alarm for four hours later,

when he anticipates the plane will be flying high over the Pacific Ocean.

Yousef plants the bomb in a life-vest pouch under his seat,

a place ground crews are unlikely to inspect during the stopover in Cebu.

Soon after, he gets off the plane and disappears.

Four hours later, the timebomb under seat 26K...

...awakes the airline industry to a new kind of terrorism.

Murad's confession confirms Pellegrino's suspicions.

This is just the kind of sophisticated plot

he has come to expect from Ramzi Yousef.

But Pellegrino is still shocked by what Murad says next.

PAL 434 was only a test,

a dry run for a much larger terrorist plot

that will kill thousands of airline passengers.

A highly skilled terrorist,

Ramzi Yousef has already set off a new type of bomb on an aircraft.

Now the FBI discovers Yousef wants to blow up more planes...

...and he continues to evade capture.

FBI investigators find evidence of Yousef's meticulous planning

on secret files on the laptop that he so desperately wanted his accomplice to retrieve.

On the laptop computer found in the Josefa apartment building

was a file which laid out a plan

for five individuals using code names -

individuals not mentioned on the plan -

to board... about three planes each,

two planes, a couple of people had three planes,

planting bombs on the planes and then returning back to their home.

Hoping, when they planted the bombs with the timing devices,

if everything went well,

all bombs would go off within about a six-hour time period.

Any more than one would've been an airline disaster.

So if they were 50% successful in their plan,

I think it would've scared a lot of people for a long time.

The file on Yousef's laptop reveals that the plan,

code-named Bojinka, is foiled with no time to spare.

The bombing of 12 American planes is meant to kill 4,000 passengers.

Youssef's campaign of terror against the airlines is scheduled to start

less than two weeks after the bust of his bomb factory in Manila.

By the time Pellegrino and the FBI team arrive in the Philippines,

Yousef is long gone.

So it was a worry and it was a missed opportunity,

um... but we also...

In a lot of these fugitive-type cases, we're not all that different.

And everybody goes home. Everybody needs to go home.

And so the investigation again would focus back to Pakistan.

The FBI immediately begin a publicity campaign in Pakistan

promoting their $2 million reward for assistance in arresting Yousef.

The strategy works.

Yousef's latest recruit for yet another airline bombing blows the whistle.

On the day Yousef is due to leave his hotel in Islamabad, a Pakistani SWAT team moves in.

In Yousef's room are Delta and United Airlines flight schedules,

as well as bomb components hidden in children's toys.

Who are you? You have a warrant?!

The informer receives the $2 million bounty for the tipoff,

which prevents yet another airline attack.

He was shocked.

He did not think he would be caught.

He had a certain confidence about him,

and I didn't think he thought we'd ever catch up to him.

Within hours of his capture,

Yousef is extradited from Pakistan

and put on a waiting U.S. government plane.

With the cooperation of the Japanese and Philippine governments,

the FBI arranged for Yousef to stand trial in New York City for the PAL 434 bombing,

as well as the earlier 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

In a convoy of federal and local patrol cars,

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef was brought into New York city late Wednesday night,

ending a worldwide manhunt.

He was arrested Tuesday in Pakistan by Pakistani authorities,

and brought back by the FBI on a plane,

then into custody with heavy security on the street

in case of any terrorist attacks prompted by his arrest.

At his trial a year later in New York Southern District Court,

Yousef decides to handle his own defence, against the advice of the judge.

He performs better than expected,

but he is found guilty on all charges related to the bombing of PAL 434

and conspiring to bomb 12 American passenger planes.

Yousef is also found guilty in a second trial for the World Trade Center bombing.

In his final summing up, Yousef justifies his actions.

Yes, I am a terrorist and proud of it.

And I only support terrorism

so long as it's against the United States government and against Israel,

because you are more than terrorists.

Although Pakistani, Yousef describes himself as Palestinian by choice.

And he justifies the PAL 434 and World Trade Center bombings

as punishment for a U.S. foreign policy

that favours Israel over Palestine.

...and hypocrites!

For both crimes,

he's sentenced to 240 years in prison.

The Judge recommends solitary confinement for life

in the most secure prison in the United States,

located in Florence, Colorado.

It houses the country's most violent and dangerous prisoners,

and it's where Yousef will spend the rest of his life

confined in a cell for up to 23 of every 24 hours.

We cannot afford to, uh, just sit down and, uh...

...count our victories with the arrest of, uh, Ramsey Yousef.

Somebody else has already replaced him,

and somebody else is already thinking

of how to circumvent these security measures that we've put up.

In the year following Yousef's attack on PAL 434,

the Federal Aviation Administration certified a machine to detect explosives.

Not one American carrier bought it.

Only after 9/11 was a law passed

that required U.S. airports to deploy explosive-detection systems.

But the most reliable models are expensive, or too slow,

and still not widely employed.

What's the old saying?

We have to be right 100% of the time; a terrorist only has to be right once.

Although there hasn't been a successful airliner bombing since PAL 434,

those who forget the past may be destined to revisit it.

difuze