Philippine Airlines Flight 434: Difference between revisions
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==The bomb== |
==The bomb== |
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US prosecutors said the device was a "Mark II" "micro[[bomb]]" constructed using [[Casio]] digital watches as described in Phase I of [[Operation Bojinka]] of which this was a test. On Flight 434, Yousef used one tenth of the explosive power he planned to use on eleven U.S. airliners in January of 1995. The [[bomb]] was designed to slip through [[airport security]] checks undetected. The [[explosive]] used was [[liquid nitroglycerin]], which was disguised as a bottle of [[contact lens]] fluid. The wires he used were hidden in the heel of his shoe. At that time, [[metal detectors]] used in [[airports]] did not go down far enough to detect anything there. |
US prosecutors said the device was a "Mark II" "micro[[bomb]]" constructed using [[Casio]] digital watches as described in Phase I of [[Operation Bojinka]] of which this was a test. On Flight 434, Yousef used one tenth of the explosive power he planned to use on eleven U.S. airliners in January of 1995. The [[bomb]] was designed to slip through [[airport security]] checks undetected. The [[explosive]] used was [[nitroglycerin|liquid nitroglycerin]], which was disguised as a bottle of [[contact lens]] fluid. The wires he used were hidden in the heel of his shoe. At that time, [[metal detectors]] used in [[airports]] did not go down far enough to detect anything there. |
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==The aftermath== |
==The aftermath== |
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Revision as of 18:02, 11 August 2006
| Occurrence | |
|---|---|
| Date | 11 December 1994 |
| Summary | In-flight bomb explosion |
| Site | Minami Daito Island |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-283B |
| Operator | Philippine Airlines |
| Registration | EI-BWF |
| Passengers | 273 |
| Crew | 20 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Injuries | 10 |
| Survivors | 292 |
Philippine Airlines Flight 434 (PAL434, PR434) was the route designator of a flight that flew on a Ninoy Aquino International Airport near Manila, Philippines - Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Cebu - New Tokyo International Airport (Now Narita International Airport), Narita, Japan near Tokyo route. On December 11, 1994, Flight 434 was on its second leg from Cebu to Tokyo when a bomb exploded, killing one passenger.
Authorities later discovered that a passenger on the aircraft's preceding leg was Ramzi Yousef, who United States authorities have branded a master Al-Qaeda bomber and terrorist. He was later convicted of the first World Trade Center bombing. Yousef boarded the flight under an assumed name.
Yousef assembled a bomb in the lavatory and stuck it under Seat 26K on the right-hand side of the fuselage, setting the timer to explode the device four hours later. He and 25 other passengers left the plane at Cebu.
Two hours before arrival at Tokyo, the bomb exploded at 11:43 P.M. while Flight 434 was 31,000 feet above Minami Daito Island, which is located nearby Okinawa and is 260 miles (420 km) southwest of Tokyo. The explosion tore out a two square foot (0.2 m²) portion of the cabin floor and ripped the body of 24-year old Haruki Ikegami, a Japanese businessman occupying the seat, in half. He was an industrial sewing machine maker returning from a trip to Cebu. Flight attendants placed a blanket where he was seated. Ikegami did not survive. The bomb blew a hole into the floor revealing the cargo hold underneath. The fuselage of the plane stayed intact.
EI-BWF, the Boeing 747-283B made an emergency landing in Naha Airport, Okinawa, one hour after the bomb exploded. When the control columns stopped functioning normally, the crew turned to steering via throttle control, reminiscent of United Airlines Flight 232. None of the aircraft's other 272 passengers or 20 crew members died, although 10 passengers sitting in front of Ikegami were injured.
Location of bomb
The seat where the bomb exploded (seat 26k) would normally be above the centre wing fuel tank on a Boeing 747 but on this particular model of 747 the tank was located slightly further back. Seat 26k was just one row in front of the tank.
The bomb
US prosecutors said the device was a "Mark II" "microbomb" constructed using Casio digital watches as described in Phase I of Operation Bojinka of which this was a test. On Flight 434, Yousef used one tenth of the explosive power he planned to use on eleven U.S. airliners in January of 1995. The bomb was designed to slip through airport security checks undetected. The explosive used was liquid nitroglycerin, which was disguised as a bottle of contact lens fluid. The wires he used were hidden in the heel of his shoe. At that time, metal detectors used in airports did not go down far enough to detect anything there.
The aftermath
After the bombing, a man claiming to represent a rebel group said in a telephone call to the Manila office of the Associated Press, "We are Abu Sayyaf Group. We explode one plane from Cebu."
Ramzi Yousef was testing the bomb for use in the proposed Operation Bojinka terrorist attack. The bomb used on Flight 434 had one-tenth the power of the bombs he planned to use in the first phase of his project which was to bomb 11 aircraft over the Pacific Ocean.
Manila police uncovered his plan on the night of January 6 and the early morning of January 7, 1995, and Yousef was arrested a month later in Pakistan.
Flight 434 today
Today flight 434 no longer originates in Manila, but instead it is a Cebu-Tokyo flight and uses Airbus A330 aircraft rather than Boeing 747s. Philippine Airlines still operates a Manila-Tokyo route as flight 432.