[Ally]

The original 'dry run' for liquid explosives on board an airliner occurred on December 11, 1994.

Ramzi Yousef, a known & very active Al-Qaeda operative who was responsible (and subsequently jailed) for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, had put together a liquid bomb comprising of explosive carried inside a contact lens fluid bottle, he carried that n his handluggage with componants in his shoes and the wristwatch on his arm.

He boarded Philippine Airlines flight 434 - a B747 - that was going from Pasay City to Narita via Cebu. He placed the device in the lifevest holder under his seat - once he had reconstructed the bomb in the toilet cubicle on board.

He got off the plane in Cebu and another passenger sat in the affected seat.

When the timer reached its trigger point, the bomb exploded, killing the passenger and wounding several others. The aircraft was damaged but not enough to bring it down. The crew diverted to Naha and made a successful emergency landing.

Subsequent investigations by the Philippine authorities uncovered plans & equipment that were to have brought down 12 aircraft heading for the US that year. Yousef got away but was eventually recaptured and jailed in the US.

In 2006, the London liquid bomb plot was discovered and thwarted by the British, it was the 2006 plot that was featured in the film last night. The original 1994 plot has been featured in an episode of Air Crash Investigation on NatGeoTV.

The attacks of 7/7 (along with the Madrid train attack and several other well publicised attacks) have all stemmed from the same group as the two thwarted liquid bomb plots involving airliners.

With the best will in the world, I honestly cannot see there ever being a 100% foolproof way to keep every form of transport completely safe. If an individual or organisation wants to do harm enough, they will always find a way to do so....however, we can make that harder for them to succeed, the main weapon against them is not to be complacent, which I believe some countries have been in the past. The attacks of 9/11 woke up those countries but the complacency has started to creep back into society, hopefully not to the extent that led to 9/11.

Had it not been for the Philippine & British authorities, there could easily have been a total of 24 aircraft...fully loaded widebodied...knocked out of the skies in 1994 and 2006.

Vigilance is key, complaceny & paranoia cannot be allowed to ride roughshod over basic common sense, such as security measures at ports & airports. Attacks like those that took place and those that have been thwarted prove (or should prove) that we are not immune to aggression and that just cos we spend billions on defence does not mean that we are impenetrable.