Overview
- Investigators uncovered a plan in August 2006 to smuggle liquid explosives in drink bottles onto multiple transatlantic flights from Heathrow with the aim of destroying passenger jets bound for North America.
- MI5 and the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Overt, a covert surveillance effort that those involved describe as the biggest UK counter‑terror operation at the time and which deployed more than 800 officers and staff to monitor suspects and gather evidence.
- U.K. raids were triggered after intelligence-led arrest of Rashid Rauf in Pakistan, leading to coordinated overnight arrests in east London, High Wycombe and Birmingham that halted the plot’s immediate progress.
- Following trials, key defendants including Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were convicted for roles in the conspiracy and other network members were found guilty of related terrorism offences.
- The ITV Exposure film, airing July 26, 2026, features serving MI5 officers, senior police and U.S. analysts who describe real‑time bugging of an east London flat, U.S. testing of device designs, the personal toll on officers and the lasting aviation security changes born from the case.