Philippine Airlines Flight 434

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Philippine Airlines Flight 434

EI-BWF, the accident aircraft, taxiing at Zurich Kloten International Airport in December 1988.
Bombing
Date	December 11, 1994
Summary	Bomb planted by Ramzi Yousef as a test for the Bojinka plot
Site	Minami Daito Island, Okinawa, Japan 25°50′45″N 131°14′30″E / 25.84583°N 131.24167°E / 25.84583; 131.24167
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-283BM Combi
Operator	Philippine Airlines
Registration	EI-BWF
Flight origin	Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Pasay, Philippines
Stopover	Mactan–Cebu International Airport, Cebu, Philippines
Destination	Narita International Airport, Tokyo, Japan
Occupants	293
Passengers	273
Crew	20
Fatalities	1
Injuries	10
Survivors	292

Philippine Airlines Flight 434, sometimes referred to as PAL434 or PR434, was a scheduled flight on December 11, 1994, from Manila to Tokyo with a quick stopover in Cebu on a Boeing 747-283B that was seriously damaged by a bomb, killing one passenger and damaging vital control systems, although the plane was in a repairable state.^[1] The incident was a test run of the unsuccessful Bojinka terrorist attacks. The Boeing 747 (tail number EI-BWF) was flying the second leg of a route from Mactan–Cebu International Airport in Cebu, Philippines to Narita International Airport, in Tokyo, Japan. After the bomb detonated, 58-year-old veteran pilot Captain Eduardo "Ed" Reyes was able to land the aircraft, saving it and the remaining passengers and crew.^[2]

Authorities later discovered that Ramzi Yousef, a passenger on the aircraft's prior flight leg from Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport, had placed the explosive.^[3][4] Yousef boarded the flight under the fake Italian name "Armaldo Forlani", an incorrect spelling of the name of the Italian legislator^[5] Arnaldo Forlani, in order not to get caught.^[6] Yousef was later convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.^[4]