The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was an alleged terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board several airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada. The plot was discovered by UK police before it could be carried out, and as a result unprecedented security measures were immediately put in place. This sudden imposition caused chaos and delayed flights for days.
The restrictions were gradually relaxed in the following weeks, but the ability of passengers to carry liquids onto commercial aircraft is still limited.
Of the approximately 24 suspects who were arrested in and around London on the night of 9 August 2006, eleven were charged with terrorism offenses on 21 August, two on 25 August (subsequently discharged on 1 November), and a further three on 30 August.
Eventually, only 8 men (Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain, Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Khan, Waheed Zaman, Umar Islam, Mohammed Gulzar) were charged in connection with the plot. The trial began in April 2008.
On 8 September 2008 after more than 50 hours of deliberations, the jury did not find any of the defendants guilty of conspiring to target aircraft. The jury found Ali, Sarwar and Hussein guilty conspiracy to murder charges but was unable to reach verdicts on charges relating to the alleged plot to blow up aircraft in respect of them.
The jurors were unable to reach verdicts on those charges or conspiracy to murder charges as well on conspiracy to detonate explosives on aircraft against Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, Umar Islam, 30, of Plaistow, and Waheed Zaman, 24, and Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, both of Walthamstow, all London. Mohammad Gulzar, 27, of Barking, east London, was found not guilty on all counts.