Bojinka plot

Bojinka plot
Aftermath of the fatal Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing
Location	Makati, Philippines (Phase I) Airspace (Phase II) Langley, Virginia, U.S. (Phase III)
Date	Planned to be executed 15–22 January 1995; foiled on 6–7 January 1995
Target	Pope John Paul II (Phase I) American airliners (Phase II) CIA Headquarters (Phase III)
Attack type	Islamic terrorism, suicide attack, bombing and aircraft hijacking
Weapons	Improvised explosive device Cessna
Deaths	1 (test bomb in Philippine Airlines Flight 434)
Injured	10 (test bomb in Philippine Airlines Flight 434)
Perpetrators	Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah
Motive	United States foreign policy in the Middle East Anti-Christian sentiment
Accused	Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Convicted	Ramzi Yusuf Abdul Hakim Murad Wali Khan Amin Shah

The Bojinka plot (Arabic: بوجينكا; Tagalog: Oplan Bojinka) was a large-scale, three-phase terrorist attack planned by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for January 1995. They planned to assassinate Pope John Paul II; blow up 11 airliners in flight from Asia to the United States, with the goal of killing approximately 4,000 passengers and shutting down air travel around the world; and crash a plane into the headquarters of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.^[1][2]

Despite careful planning, the Bojinka plot was disrupted after a chemical fire drew the attention of the Philippine National Police – Western Police District (PNP-WPD, now known as Manila Police District PNP-MPD) on January 6–7, 1995. Yousef and Mohammed were unable to stage any of the three attacks. The only fatality resulted from a test bomb planted by Yousef on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, which killed one person and injured 10 others. They also planted two other bombs in a shopping mall and theater in the southern Philippines. Elements of the Bojinka plot (including the plan to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters) would be used in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, six years later. The Bojinka plot would have consisted of three phases, first the assassination of the then pope, mass bombings on American flights heading to the USA and an attack against America very similar to the 9/11 attacks, targeting landmarks and nuclear power plants, causing potential nuclear fallout. Political scientists estimate at least 24,000-60,000 people would have been killed and hundreds of thousands left affected due to this attack, making it possibly the deadliest terror attack in world history.