Details in alleged plot to bomb jet

BOMBS which police say were intended for a packed Etihad plane flying out of Sydney were allegedly set to go off 20 minutes after takeoff.

The terrorist plot would have destroyed the airliner as it passed the Blue Mountains and killed about 400 passengers.

One of three brothers accused of trying to plant bombs on the Etihad Airways flight last July is alleged to have told Lebanese police the two devices had been designed to detonate 20 minutes after takeoff.

But he has retracted his confession and now says he is innocent. In the now-retracted confession, Amer Khayat, 40, who is in jail in Lebanon, is alleged to have told police the devices, hidden in a meat mincer and a Barbie doll, had been fitted with self-timers designed to detonate 20 minutes after takeoff.

Police have not revealed whether the target was Flight EY451 or EY455, but both follow a similar flight path and can carry about 400 passengers. Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, who tracked the flight paths on radar, said the timing would have resulted in the plane being somewhere between Oberon and Bathurst.

Lebanese police who interrogated Khayat said he told them the bombs never made it on to the plane because Etihad had told him his hand luggage was too heavy.

But in an interview from jail, Khayat said “Australia is my country’’ and pleaded to be allowed to return home.

“Tell the people of Australia I am innocent. I am not a terrorist. I want to go home,’’ he said.