Inside the foiled ISIS plot to bring down an Australian passenger plane
Two Sydney brothers were sentenced to spend at least a quarter of a century behind bars for plotting to blow up an Etihad plane mid-flight with a bomb hidden in the luggage of their unsuspecting sibling.
Khaled Khayat, then 52, and Mahmoud Khayat, then 34, were found guilty in the NSW Supreme Court in 2019 of conspiring between January and July 2017 to prepare or plan a terrorist act.
The ISIS plan to blow up an Etihad passenger plane with 400 people onboard made headlines worldwide. Nine
The judge jailed the older brother for 40 years and his younger sibling for 36 years with non-parole periods of 30 and 27 years respectively.
They plotted with their older brother, Tarek Khayat, who fought for Islamic State in Syria, and "the controller", an unidentified person connected with him, to blow up the plane and carry out a lethal poisonous gas attack.
A bomb, sent in a parcel by Tarek Khayat to Sydney, was hidden in a meat grinder and put into the luggage of their unsuspecting brother, Amer Khayat, who was flying to Abu Dhabi.
Tarek Khayat, the mastermind of the bomb plot gave his first television interview to 60 Minutes. Nine
Their bomb plan was abandoned when the luggage was found to be overweight at Sydney Airport on July 15, 2017.
After a baggage attendant told them to rearrange Amer's luggage, Khaled removed the bomb due to fears of it being detected.
If they had succeeded, hundreds of people in the air, and probably more on the ground, would have been killed.
For the first time 60 Minutes can take you inside the plan to unleash hell on Australia, including a first television interview with Tarek, who warns ISIS remains a deadly threat and is inspiring a new generation of radicalised zealots.
Khaled Khayat (left) and Mahmoud Khaya were jailed for decades over the failed bombing plot. Nine
"In the end, my brothers were influenced by me, that's right," said Tarek, through a translator, speaking on death row from a dilapidated jail in the Iraqi desert.
"However, I did not anticipate that they would be influenced to such an extent and achieve what they have achieved."
Despite the failed plot, Tarek believes this is just the beginning of a new era of terror.
"The Islamic State has started it. It has begun," he said.
"The State of Islam will not die, but will return stronger than it was."
The plot
Amer, the unsuspecting brother who was cleared of any involvement, was set up to be sacrificed in a deadly scenario he knew nothing about and continues to live with a terrible truth about his family.
Amer Khayat was unknowingly set up to be sacrificed by his brothers Nine
Can he forgive them? It is complicated.
"I can't say no, I can't say yes," Amer said.
"It's painful for me, of course, but what can you do? That's it. Forgive, I can't forgive. Forget them, forget I have brothers.
"They chose me because I'm the bad person, they think, in their mind," added Amer, who was known for his partying and drinking and estranged from his devout Muslim family.
In war-torn Syria, it's not hard to find bomb makers. The big gamble for ISIS was getting those parts into Australia.
CCTV captured the brothers arriving at Sydney Airport, with a bomb hidden in a meat grinder. Nine
"The Islamic State's development and manufacturing apparatus was able to develop a small-sized device that could get past all security measures at all airports," Tarek said.
All it took was a DHL courier package and a welder. The device itself was broken down into pieces and put inside the welder, shipped to Australia.
Remarkably, the package wasn't intercepted at its first port, Turkey, nor its final destination, Australia.
The bomb was assembled in Australia using parts shipped from Syria. Nine
The global fallout
Andrew McCabe was acting director of the FBI at the time of the failed plot and said he had been left shocked by the level of planning and execution.
"I think the thing that shocked me the most then and still impresses me to this day is the sophistication of being able to essentially mail an explosive device into Australia from Syria, and then to be able to coach foreign-recruited operatives to work with that device, to set that device up," he said.
"That was a level of planning and really very creative execution that we have not seen in any of the many plots that we've foiled up until that time."
McCabe said ISIS remained a threat in 2025.
Andrew McCabe, former acting director of the FBI says ISIS remains a threat in 2025. Nine
"I think there is no question that our experiences in 2024 and seeing what particularly ISIS has been able to do around the globe has got to wake up our governments and our counter terrorism professionals to ISIS as continuing to be one of the highest priority threats we have to deal with," he said.
You can watch the full story, including extended interviews, on 9NOW here.
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