PlayAs many as 18 suicide bombers planned to blow up transatlantic jets using bombs disguised as soft drinks, a court has heard.
The jury at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London heard how a gang of eight men plotted to have home-made liquid bombs smuggled on to US and Canadian-bound planes and detonated mid-flight "in the name of Islam".
The flights were to depart Heathrow for New York, Washington, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco and Chicago between July and October 2006, the court heard.
Between 241 and 285 passengers would travel on each 777, 763 or 763 jet belonging to Air Canada, United Airlines or American Airlines. The first flight in the sequence would take off at 14.30 for San Francisco, and the last just 1 hour and 41 minutes later at 5.11pm to Chicago.
Jurors heard the explosives were to be manufactured from domestic and commercial ingredients including hydrogen peroxide bleach and the fruit sugar concentrate Tang.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said: "It is the Crown's case that what the bombers intended to do was carry hydrogen peroxide mixed with Tang in hand luggage disguised as 500ml bottles of Lucozade or Oasis soft drink."
He added: "The mixture was to be detonated with some form of homemade detonator. In all likelihood this was to be a mixture known as HMTD. This chemical composition is capable of being produced from a mixture of household and commercial ingredients which are freely available.
"They would be disguised as AA 1.5V batteries."
Mr Wright said orange-red food colouring would be used to dye the explosive mixture to resemble a soft drink. It would then be injected into the bottles through a hole in the bottom, it was claimed.
The eight men deny two charges linked to the alleged plot which resulted in hundreds of flights being cancelled and strict security measures imposed on passengers when anti-terror police made the arrests in August 2006.
The first charge alleges the eight conspired to murder between January 1 and August 11, 2006. The second alleges they conspired to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft between the same dates.
The accused are: Abdulla Ahmed Ali, aka Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Prospect Hill, Walthamstow, east London, Assad Sarwar, 27, of Walton Drive, High Wycombe, Bucks, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Nottingham Road, Leyton, east London, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Priory Road, Barking, east London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Denver Road, Stoke Newington, north London, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, of Farnham Avenue, Walthamstow, Waheed Zaman, 23, of Queen's Road, Walthamstow and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, 29, of Bushey Road, Plaistow, east London.
On Wednesday, the judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, warned jurors the trial would be long.
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