Terror in the Skies: The plot that could have brought down the government

A new ITV Exposure documentary revisits a plot that investigators believe could have caused casualties exceeding the 9/11 attacks, highlighting how authorities narrowly prevented a mass aviation disaster. The report says that 20 years after British authorities uncovered a plan to smuggle liquid explosives onto transatlantic airliners and destroy multiple jets bound for North America, senior figures involved in the operation are speaking publicly for the first time. It centers on a surveillance effort described as the biggest in British history, involving serving MI5 officers, counter-terrorism police, CIA analysts, and government ministers. The program features testimony from an officer using the pseudonym Dan about installing surveillance equipment in a suspected bomb-making flat in East London under near-total darkness. It also includes accounts from an officer called Anna, who described personal sacrifices, including delaying her wedding. The article says investigators identified the alleged plot as orchestrated in August 2006 by British extremist Abdulla Ahmed Ali and directed from Pakistan by alleged mastermind Rashid Rauf.