TWO Islamist extremists discussed crashing a British Airways flight with 30 suicide bombers on board, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

In a conversation bugged by MI5 officers, one of them describes an aircraft suicide attack as a “good idea”.

Omar Khyam, 24, and Jawad Akbar, 22, are accused of conspiring with others to cause an explosion at a high-profile British target. They were arrested in March 2004 after surveillance by security services.

The pair talked about infiltrating utility companies and launching attacks on water, gas and power cables simultaneously, and also referred to a friend who had access to all areas at Gatwick airport.

And in one discussion covertly recorded at Mr Akbar’s flat in Uxbridge, West London, three weeks before their arrests, Mr Khyam is heard to say: “It’s just ideas coming out. Like the last idea to hijack the plane, it’s just an idea, we could have done it.

“Imagine you’ve got a plane, 300 people in it, you buy tickets for 30 brothers in there. They’re massive brothers, you just crash the plane. You could do it easy, it’s just an idea.”

Mr Akbar, a student at Brunel University, interrupts to say: “Thirty brothers, to find 30 brothers willing to commit suicide is a big thing.”

But Mr Khyam replies: “If you spoke to some serious brothers, to the right people, you’d probably get it, bro.”

In an apparent reference to the September 11 terrorist attacks, he continues: “Thirty brothers on a British Airways flight got up — 19 were split up in four planes. Thirty brothers on a plane, the beauty of it is they don’t have to fly into a building, just crash the flipping thing.”

The pair also discussed Guantanamo Bay and what they would do if there were a terrorist attack on Britain.

Mr Khyam was recorded saying: “If you do something in this country you are getting caught, trust me 100 per cent, don’t even think about it that you will get away with it.”

He added: “If anything happens here all you lot are going down . . . It’s a matter of time, something will get through.” At the end of the hour-long conversation, Mr Khyam asked: “Do you think your room is monitored?” Mr Akbar replied: “Nah, do you think that? Do you know, I think we give them too much credit bruv.”

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