Yousef bombs Philippines Airlines Flight 434
AttackPart of Project Bojinka
| Event Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | Primary Organization | Project Bojinka Cell | |
| Means of Attack | Timed bomb | |
| Location | Near Minami Daito Island, Okinawa, Japan | |
| Time | 1145 local, Dec. 11, 1994 | |
| Victim Deaths | 1 | ||
| Attacker Deaths | 0 | ||
| Participants | Ramzi Yousef (Operational Commander) 2 | |
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| Narrative and Notes | |||
| Reliable | On a "test run" for the larger Bojinka plot, Ramzi Yousef boarded Philippines Airlines Flight 434 at Manila. The plane was a Boeing 747-283B. He purchased a ticket under the alias of an Italian legislator. During the flight, he assembled several bomb components, including a timer, in the airplane's bathroom, and left it in the life jacket pouch beneath seat 26K. Yousef got off the plane at an intermediate stop in Cebu, Philippines. With 273 passengers and 20 crew on board, the plane took off for its final destination at Tokyo's Narita airport, and the bomb exploded while it was in flight, killing the occupiant of 26K, Haruki Ikegami, of Japan. Miraculously, the plane's pilots overcame a gaping hole in the hull and landed safely in Okinawa at 12:45 p.m.1,3 | |
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| Sources | |||
| 1Aviation Safety Network web site. | |||
| 2United States vs. Ramzi Yousef et. al. indictment. | |||
| 3Filipino interrogation of Abdul Hakim Murad, Feb. 11, 1995. | |||
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| Page maintained by John Lumpkin | |||
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