Australia plane bomb was planted on brother

Two men tried to smuggle a bomb on to a plane at an Australian airport last month in a plot directed by Islamic State, police have said.

The men, who are now facing terrorism charges, targeted an Etihad Airways flight out of Sydney airport, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said.

One of the men, a 49-year old, took the device to the airport on July 15 in a piece of luggage that he had asked his brother to take with him on the flight, but he had not told his brother the bag contained explosives.

However, for reasons that are still unclear, the bag never got past the checkin counter.

Instead, Mr Phelan said, the 49-year-old man left the airport with the bag and his brother continued on to the flight without it.

Mr Phelan said: “If it hadn’t been for the great work of our intelligence agencies over a very quick period of time, then we could have had a catastrophic event in this country.”