Terror plot accused 'targeted seven flights'

Terrorist plotters chose seven flights from London to North America as potential targets for a series of bomb attacks, a jury heard today.

The services all left Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport and would have been in the air at the same time, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

A memory stick belonging to Abdulla Ahmed Ali was found to contain flight timetables, baggage information and security advice on restricted items.

The sorts of aircraft researched included 777, 767 and 763 jets with a passenger capacity of between 241 and 285 people.

Seven particular flights from Heathrow to Canada and the United States were highlighted on Ali's memory stick, the court heard.

They departed daily to six major cities, setting off within two hours 35 minutes of each other. Only outbound flights had been researched.

The seven flights were:

* 1415 United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco

* 1500 Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto

* 1515 Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal

* 1540 United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago

* 1620 United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington

* 1635 American Airlines Flight 139 to New York

* 1650 American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago.

However, Mr Wright told the jury that the eight defendants had ambitions beyond just those flights.

In conversation two of the men were heard to mention flights from other terminals and up to 18 suicide bombers, he said.