THREE MEN GULITY OF AIRLINE BOMB PLOT !

Three men have been found guilty of plotting to kill thousands of people by blowing up planes over the Atlantic with home-made liquid bombs.

A jury convicted ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as drinks.

Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were also found guilty of the same charge at Woolwich Crown Court.

The men's arrests in 2006 led to new airport restrictions on liquids and brought chaos to travellers.

Ali, Hussain and Sarwar were previously found guilty of conspiracy to murder involving liquid bombs - but that jury could not decide whether their plans extended to detonating the devices on planes.

Now a second jury has decided that such a terror plot did exist.

With thousands killed in the air and on the ground, the explosions could have caused more devastation than the September 11 attacks.

The court was told MI5 officers uncovered the plotters as they followed cells of extremists in London.

The jury heard that, at the time of the men's arrest in August 2006, Ali had identified seven flights leaving from Heathrow to North American cities.

Sarwar, meanwhile, was described as the plot's "quartermaster", securing bomb ingredients from his home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

A flat in the Walthamstow area of east London became the bomb factory, where the men put together a special mixture of chemicals.

They planned to take this mixture, sealed in ordinary sports drinks bottles, on board flights in hand luggage.

The men told the court that they had been planning a political stunt, including small explosions only intended to frighten people at airports.

The world's aviation industry was thrown into chaos in 2006 after their arrests, as security experts immediately introduced restrictions on liquids in hand luggage.

BBC NEWS REPORT.