Original subtitles

BILL RATNER: A deadly explosion rocks an airliner

flying at 33,000 feet.

A bomb has exploded on board, Bravo Oscar Mike Bravo.

BILL RATNER: The blast kills a passenger

and cripples the plane.

The crew struggles to save 293 lives.

The bombing sets off an international manhunt

while the terrorist prepares to strike again.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT (VOICEOVER): Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

MAN (VOICEOVER): We lost both engines.

WOMAN (VOICEOVER): emergency

MAN (VOICEOVER): Mayday, mayday.

WOMAN (VOICEOVER): Brace for impact!

MAN (VOICEOVER): I think I lost one.

Investigation starting ..

MAN (VOICEOVER): It's going to crash!

BILL RATNER: It's before sunrise on December 11, 1994.

While most inhabitants of this city of a million and a half

have a few more hours to sleep, 26-year-old Arnaldo 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 5:00 AM flight

with Philippine Airlines.

Before he can board, the bomber must outwit airport

security screening procedures.

He has 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 Arnaldo Forlani.

He is a skilled forger, and he's

made himself a fake Italian passport with that identity.

If his cover is blown, his career

as a globetrotting terrorist is over.

Having successfully gotten the bomb through airport security,

he boards his Philippine Airlines flight.

The final destination of PAL434 is Tokyo,

but there is a stopover in the Philippine resort

town of Cebu, over 300 miles 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.

Let me get you on autopilot.

ED REYES (ON SPEAKER): Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

This is your captain, Ed Reyes, speaking.

Welcome aboard Flight 434, flying south from Manila

to Cebu and continuing onward to Narita Airport, Tokyo.

BILL RATNER: Flight 434 is under the command of Captain

Ed Reyes, a former Air Force pilot

who has been flying 747s for Philippine

Airlines for nine years.

Arrival time is now 5:45.

The weather in Cebu is--

BILL RATNER: 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, which is directly over the 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.

BILL RATNER: 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 on to Tokyo.

ED REYES (ON SPEAKER): Cabin crew, prepare for landing.

Cabin doors to automatic.

BILL RATNER: PAL434 lands in Cebu at 6:50 AM, and several

of the passengers disembark, including

the terrorist with the alias Arnaldo Forlani.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

BILL RATNER: Maria De La Cruz will also leave Flight 434.

A new cabin crew will take over for the four-and-a-half-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 is 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 AM, December 11, 1994.

All passengers for Philippine Airlines Flight 434

are now on board for the leg to Tokyo.

None of them is aware that two hours

earlier, a terrorist planted a time

bomb under one of their seats.

Steward Fernando Bayot is assisting

passengers in the forward cabin on this

four-and-a-half-hour flight.

At 8:38 AM, PAL434 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 traveling with the Japanese tour group,

including Keisuke Aoki and Masaharu Mochizuki.

INTERPRETER: After takeoff, everything seemed normal.

We were flying at 10,000 meters.

I was reading a magazine.

Then the meal was served.

After eating, I went to sleep.

BILL RATNER: 31-year-old Yukihiko Osui stayed up all

night in 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.

ED REYES (ON SPEAKER): 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.

BILL RATNER: Two hours into the flight, PAL434

is cruising on autopilot 33,000 feet 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 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.

Taking QRH for rapid--

BILL RATNER: Although the autopilot instantly

correct the aircraft's bank to the right,

the effect of the blast is far from over.

INTERPRETER: 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.

INTERPRETER: The injured people were

trying to get away from the area where the bomb was.

FERNANDO BAYOT: Please sit down!

INTERPRETER: I stood up and saw that a lot of people

were bleeding.

I thought my life was over.

FERNANDO BAYOT: Stay in your seats, please.

BILL RATNER: The cabin crew's first priority

is to stop passengers from leaving their seats.

Yukihiko Osui 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.

FERNANDO BAYOT: Get me some blankets here.

Please sit down and fasten your seatbelt!

BILL RATNER: Bayot now turns his attention

to Haruki Ikegami.

He has been swallowed by the smoking hole

where seat 26k used to be.

FERNANDO BAYOT: I saw this man.

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

so I tried to pull him out.

BILL RATNER: 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 does not want Ikegami's

death to panic passengers, so they

pretend to minister to him.

Bayot then reports to the captain.

Oh, Captain?

OK?

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.

DEXTER COMENDADOR: Yes, sir.

BILL RATNER: Reyes's first concern

is that the blast could make a hole in the aircraft skin.

This would lead to sudden depressurization in the cabin

and require an emergency descent.

DEXTER COMENDADOR: There was a huge gaping hole beside her,

and if a small tear in the skin of the aircraft was--

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.

BILL RATNER: Immediately after the explosion,

the copilot'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, OK, I'm going to try

to turn the airplane using the autopilot,

but there was no reaction.

Whether I tried to make it go down or up

or left and right turns, no reaction.

I said, now we have a problem.

BILL RATNER: This is not Reyes's only problem.

In the cabin, one of the injured passengers

needs urgent medical attention.

Tokyo is still two and a half hours away,

and Reyes decides to try landing

at Naha Airport on the island of Okinawa, some 40 miles

to the west.

He orders the copilot to make a mayday call.

Yes, sir.

Naha, PAL434, heavy declaring emergency.

Explosion on board.

We have casualties.

Requesting emergency landing at Naha.

We will need pull emergency services on landing.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL (ON RADIO): PAL434, Naha.

Please repeat.

Say again.

BILL RATNER: Getting the Japanese Air

traffic controller to understand the emergency

proves difficult.

Bravo Oscar Mike Bravo, bomb explosion.

Request emergency landing at Naha.

And they were silent.

Then the controller came in, another controller,

an American.

OK, Philippine 434, I'm taking over.

BILL RATNER: The American air traffic

controller is from an American base in Okinawa.

DEXTER COMENDADOR: Turn left heading.

No, I shot 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'll 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.

BILL RATNER: But landing at Naha is easier said than done.

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

and PAL434 is heading straight past Okinawa.

Reyes must find a way to steer if he is to have

any chance of landing safely.

Ugh, I'm not getting any--

BILL RATNER: But disengaging the autopilot

might result in losing what minimal control he

still has over the aircraft.

It seems 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, bang to the right

that we might not be able to control.

On the count of three, I'll disengage.

1, 2, 3.

1, 2, 3, turn.

Nothing happened.

And then there was--

we were relieved.

I can't turn using the controls.

Looks like the explosion jammed the aileron.

Dex, what does the QRH say about jammed ailerons?

BILL RATNER: 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.

OK.

Let's force it.

BILL RATNER: Captain 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 that ailerons.

Can't get off this heading.

OK, re-engage the autopilot while I work out our options.

BILL RATNER: It's taking much longer

to land than was announced.

Although they survived the bombing,

passengers are now anxious about landing

safely at Naha Airport.

KEISUKE AOKI:

INTERPRETER: 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.

BILL RATNER: As PAL434 looks like it

will miss Naha Airport, Reyes comes up with another plan.

We got to turn.

We'll have to use differential power.

Disengage autothrottle.

Pull back 3 and 4.

BILL RATNER: 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 similar radius turn.

With guidance from air traffic control,

Reyes hopes that the maneuver will eventually

line up with a runway at Naha.

ED REYES (VOICEOVER): So while we were descending

on low speed, I tried to test the flight controls,

and there are-- there are some little reactions.

The elevator is beginning to respond.

Dex, .

BILL RATNER: The elevator is a control that makes

the plane ascend and descend.

ED REYES: 250 knots, flaps 1 on speed.

BILL RATNER: In order to land safely,

Reyes will need at least minimal control

over the elevator and rudder.

Flaps 5.

BILL RATNER: As PAL434 nears Naha,

he continues to reduce his airspeed.

Flaps 10 set, speed 225.

OK, she's turning.

JAIME HERRERA: Sir, if we reduce our weight,

we will be able to reduce our approaching landing speeds.

I suggest we dump fuel.

ED REYES:

BILL RATNER: Reyes orders the systems engineer

to dump 36 tons of fuel.

ED REYES: Five minutes, 20,000 pounds.

BILL RATNER: Less fuel means less strain on landing

gear and brakes at touchdown.

check.

INTERPRETER: I was terrified when I saw the smoke

trail behind each wing.

And I thought something must be burning,

and there would be another explosion.

BILL RATNER: As touchdown gets closer,

Reyes worries that the bomb may have done more yet unknown

damage to the aircraft.

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

Strap yourself in.

I'll increase the pressure.

DEXTER COMENDADOR: 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-- you make it, or you die.

And that's because you cannot do anything anymore.

Runway in sight.

BILL RATNER: With only minimal control over the aircraft,

Reyes faces the most challenging

landing of his career.

As PAL434 starts its final approach,

the 292 people on board are pinning

their hopes of survival on the skill of the cockpit crew.

I know all everybody was scared.

We are-- we are all scared.

I know that.

Gear down.

DEXTER COMENDADOR: The gears were supposed

to come down a few seconds, but that

was the longest second that--

because we were waiting for the greens to come on.

Yeah. Take a long time, you know?

It took a long time.

It was a long few seconds until it-- when it locked.

ED REYES: Yeah.

Three greens, sir.

OK.

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

Monitor my descent rate.

Call altitude and speed.

Flaps 30.

OK, 500 feet on course.

DEXTER COMENDADOR: Flaps 30 set.

Help me with the elevator.

When I say push, I want you to push.

OK, 200, slightly left.

ED REYES: Correcting.

Push.

100, 50, 30.

OK, power off.

Pull!

Your last--

Touch down.

--command was, "Pull!"

Yeah, my last command was, "Pull!"

ED REYES: OK.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain speaking.

We'd like to thank you for your cooperation and your patience.

Emergency crews are on their way.

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

Thank you.

BILL RATNER: 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 body

by the explosion.

He suffered severe internal injuries and massive loss

of blood, but tragic as it was, the effects of the explosion

could have been much worse.

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 copilot's control cable

to the right aileron, one of the surfaces in the right wing

which make an aircraft bank and turn.

The downward force blew a hole in the floor

and could have ignited the vapors in the center fuel

tank, creating a catastrophic explosion,

but by chance, on December 11, seat 26K was not located

directly above the fuel 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 center tank.

BILL RATNER: The Okinawa forensic investigators

immediately start 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 reconstructing 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 is another clue that suggests that the bomber

could be based there.

Philippine National Police Deputy Chief

Sonny Razon is on the case.

SONNY RAZON: The later part of 1994,

we already started to receive information, intelligence

reports that there were Middle Eastern

personalities that were here already in the Philippines.

BILL RATNER: On the night of January 6, 1995,

almost four weeks after the bombing of PAL434,

the Philippine police get a lucky break.

In his Manila apartment, the PAL434 bomber

has enlisted the help of an accomplice to mass

produce his new undetectable bomb.

BILL RATNER: An attempt to burn off chemicals

gets out of hand.

BILL RATNER: Acrid-smelling smoke

spills out of the apartment.

It attracts the attention of the doorman,

who comes to investigate.

Hey, hey, what's going on?

Sorry, sorry.

We were playing with some fireworks, but it's OK.

We put them out, and we have all the windows open inside.

And we keep the door closed. It'll be fine, OK?

You open the door.

No, if we open the door, the smoke come in the hallway.

We keep it closed.

It go out the window, OK?

It's OK.

It's OK.

BILL RATNER: 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 has left a very sensitive item

in the apartment, and he persuades his friend

to retrieve his laptop.

He was too clever a guy to come back and expose himself

because all along, he knew that that

would be too risky for him to go back and be caught.

BILL RATNER: The bomber's fear of getting

caught is justified.

Once Police Inspector Aida Fariscal learns that they

are 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.

Hey, boss,

Get down.

You, stop!

BILL RATNER: The shot distracts the apprentice,

and he trips over a fallen palm tree.

BILL RATNER: 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.

SONNY RAZON: Incident at the Doña Josefa apartment was

the breakthrough in opening our eyes that the al-Qaeda

terrorist cell was already operating

here in the Philippines.

BILL RATNER: The Philippine National Police

know they have 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 FBI 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.

That's great.

Well, he was always our focus in '93.

I mean, at the time, that was the--

you know, he was the biggest fugitive around.

BILL RATNER: As Philippine police comb

through the apartment, they begin

to find more evidence tying Yousef

to the bombing of PAL434.

FRANK PELLEGRINO: There was a 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 on that Flight 434,

and identifying those pieces eventually as a Casio watch,

you know, it was amazing.

BILL RATNER: 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.

FRANK PELLEGRINO: So almost as a dig to us, this--

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-- was Yousef that was--

had been in the apartment.

They knew chemicals.

The chemical dictionary was a very well used item,

underlined, highlighted, well read,

notations throughout the book, something

that he used quite often.

And I don't remember the exact number.

I think they might have been hundreds latent prints found

on that that belonged to him.

BILL RATNER: The identification of the bomber of PAL434

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 PAL434 is still on the loose.

When Philippine National Police discover

the hideout of a terrorist, the FBI identifies him

as Ramzi Yousef.

Evidence that Arnaldo Forlani, the man who planted the bomb

on PAL434, 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 that he met the friend he enlisted to help him

in the Manila bomb factory.

When he was 18, Yousef's family returned

to their Pakistani 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 using the computer, so he definitely had some talents.

BILL RATNER: On his summer breaks

from college in the 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.

The 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 26, 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.

BILL RATNER: 18 months after the World Trade Center attack,

Yousef flies to Manila to fine-tune

the bomb he plans on PAL434.

According to Sonny Razon, the Philippine capital suits him.

Ramzi Yousef loved to enjoy life.

He was a-- he is a ladies man.

He associated himself with a lot of girlfriends,

and he liked to party.

He also drank a lot, tea, and he enjoyed the life.

Terrorists-- they are your normal day-to-day people,

the guy next door.

BILL RATNER: After the bombing of PAL434,

Yousef arranges for his childhood friend Abdul Hakim

Murad to assist him in Manila, but on January 6, 1995, two

weeks after his arrival, Murad is

arrested and sent to Philippine police headquarters

for interrogation.

It took 67 days to extract the details of how

Yousef planted the bomb.

SONNY RAZON: My impressions of him

was that he was strong willed.

He was determined.

Initially, he did not break down in questioning,

and it was only when the FBI team that came in and provided

us with additional information or pieces of the puzzle

that we did not have that he started to talk.

BILL RATNER: Tiny chemical traces of the explosive

were found on PAL434, and Murad eventually admits that Yousef

uses liquid nitroglycerin that he

stabilized and concealed in a bottle

of contact lens solution.

Murad also reveals that Yousef hid

the bomb's potentially suspicious

electronic components in the heel of his shoe.

Most airport security systems only detect

metal well above the ankles.

FRANK PELLEGRINO: I bet you he was cool as could be.

He was somewhat cavalier in his attitude toward these

explosives and chemicals, to carry

a container of nitroglycerin on an-- on an airplane and--

you know, maybe a little nuts.

BILL RATNER: Murad's confession provides details of Yousef's

actions after he successfully got the bomb components

through airport security.

Can I get you some juice or coffee?

Juice, please.

BILL RATNER: Yousef designed the device

so the innocent looking components

can be quickly transformed into a lethal bomb.

He 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.

He plants the bomb in a life jacket 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 time bomb under seat 26K

awakens 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's come to expect from Ramzi Yousef,

but Pellegrino is still shocked by what Murad says next.

PAL434 was only a test, a dry run for a much larger

terrorist plot that will kill thousands

of airline passengers.

While international terrorist Ramzi Yousef continues

to evade capture, the FBI searches for his next intended

bombing targets.

FBI investigators find evidence of Yousef's

meticulous planning in secret files

on the laptop he so desperately wanted

his accomplice to retrieve.

FRANK PELLEGRINO: 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 have three planes--

planting bombs on the planes, and then returning back

to their home, hoping when they planted the bombs

and 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 have been--

been an airline disaster, so you know,

if they were 50% successful in their plan,

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

BILL RATNER: The file on Yousef's laptop

reveals that the plan, codenamed Bojinka,

is foiled with no time to spare.

The bombing of 12 American planes

is meant to kill 4,000 passengers.

Yousef's campaign of terror 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.

But we-- we also--

on a lot of these fugitive-type cases, you know,

we're all not that different, and everybody goes home.

Everybody needs to go home, and so the investigation, again,

would focus back to Pakistan.

BILL RATNER: The FBI immediately begins 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.

BILL RATNER: In Yousef's room are Delta and United Airlines

flight schedules as well as bomb components

hidden in children's toys.

What do you want?

Who are you?

Do you have a warrant? Huh?

BILL RATNER: The informer receives a $2 million

bounty for the-tip off that prevents

another airline attack.

FRANK PELLEGRINO: He was shocked,

did not think he would be--

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.

BILL RATNER: Within hours of his capture,

Yousef is extradited from Pakistan

and put on a waiting US 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 PAL434 bombing

as well as the earlier 1993 attack

on the World Trade Center.

REPORTER (VOICEOVER): 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 US plane, then

into custody with heavy security

on the street in case of any terrorist attacks

prompted by his arrest.

BILL RATNER: At his trial a year later in New York's

Southern District Court, Yousef decides

to handle his own defense against the advice

of the judge.

--and so-called economic embargoes, which

kills no one other than--

BILL RATNER: He performs better than expected.

--children and elderly people--

BILL RATNER: But he is found guilty on all charges related

to the bombing of PAL434 and conspiring to bomb

12 American passenger planes.

Yousef is also found guilty in a second trial for the World

Trade Center bombing.

The government in it's summations--

BILL RATNER: 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.

BILL RATNER: Although Pakistani,

Yousef describes himself as Palestinian by choice.

and using it every day.

BILL RATNER: And he justifies the PAL434--

BILL RATNER: --and World Trade Center bombings as punishment

for a US foreign policy-- -

BILL RATNER: --that favors Israel over Palestine.

--and hypocrites.

BILL RATNER: For both crimes, he is 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 23 out of every 24 hours.

In the year following Yousef's attack on PAL434,

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 US

airports to deploy explosive detection systems,

but the most reliable models are expensive or too slow

and still not widely employed.

Well, what's the old saying?

You know, we have to be right 100% of the time.

Terrorist only has to be right once.

BILL RATNER: Although there hasn't been

a successful airline bombing since PAL434,

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