Three British Muslims were convicted yesterday of plotting to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-air in a co-ordinated attack intended to rival the horror of 9/11.

The guilty verdicts at Woolwich Crown Court were hailed as a triumph in the fight against terrorism by ministers, police and prosecutors.

But it took three years, two lengthy trials, a massive surveillance operation and more than £50 million in police and legal costs to prove that the plot to detonate liquid explosives smuggled on board in soft drinks bottles existed and that draconian security restrictions on travellers were justified.

In the end, extraordinary measures were needed to produce e-mails between the London suicide plotters and their terrorist directors in Pakistan, security sources said.

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The coded e-mails, which discussed “dummy runs” and buying chemicals to make explosives, were not used in the first trial because they had been picked up in electronic surveillance and could not be used as evidence in British courts.

The ban was circumvented at the second trial by a British government application in the US courts requiring Yahoo! to hand over the e-mails.

Security sources said that the move was “highly significant” in establishing the link between the British group — who claimed that they were staging a hoax as an anti-war protest — and terrorists in Pakistan.

When the plot to kill thousands of people was uncovered in August 2006 emergency measures were imposed on all air travel, with passengers banned from carrying liquids and 2,000 flights cancelled as extra security checks were introduced.

The men found guilty were Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, the leader of the British cell, Tanvir Hussain, 28, his lieutenant, and Assad Sarwar, 29.

Sarwar was not going to take part in the suicide mission because he was required to distribute “martyrdom videos” recorded by the bombers.

Three men who made videos — Waheed Zaman, 25, Ibrahim Savant, 28, and Arafat Khan, 28 — were cleared of plotting to blow up airliners and conspiracy to murder but admitted planning to commit a public nuisance. Umar Islam, 31, a convert to Islam, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder but cleared of plotting to destroy airliners. All seven will be sentenced next week.

Another convert, Donald Stewart Whyte, 23, was cleared of terrorism charges. He demanded that prosecutors apologise for putting him on trial.

Government tests on using intercept material in mock trials have encountered serious problems. Chris Huhne MP, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that if intercepts had been available the trial would have been shorter and cheaper.

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