Incident Summary:
10/29/2010: On Friday night around 0330, in East Midlands Airport in Lockington, Leicestershire, Great Britain, British authorities conducted a search of UPS Flight 232, which had been bound for the United States and was diverted to East Midlands Airport after authorities were alerted by Saudi intelligence that there were parcels carrying explosive devices on board. Officials located and safely defused an improvised explosive device, reportedly not long before it was set to detonate. The IED was a package containing PETN hidden inside a printer cartridge. The packages were sent from Yemen, addressed to synagogues in Chicago. Four militants were arrested in connection with the incident, which was linked to a similar attempt on a FedEx cargo plane that was grounded in Dubai. Al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack.
Overview
GTD ID:
201010290009
When:
2010-10-29
Country:
United Kingdom
Region:
Western Europe
Province/administrative
region/u.s. state:
England
City:
Lockington
What
Attack Information
| Type of Attack () |
Bombing/Explosion |
| Successful Attack? () |
No |
Target Information ()
| Target Type: Airports and Aircraft |
|---|
| Name of Entity |
United Parcel Service (UPS) |
| Specific Description |
UPS flight 232 |
| Nationality of Target |
United States |
Additional Information
| Hostages |
No |
| Ransom |
No |
| Property Damage |
No |
How
Weapon Information
| Type |
Sub-type |
| Explosives |
Letter Bomb |
| Weapon Details |
|---|
| An improvised explosive device, PETN in a printer cartridge, was used in the attack. |
Additional Information
| Suicide Attack? | No |
| Part of Multiple Incident? | Yes |
| Criterion 1 () |
Yes |
| Criterion 2 () |
Yes |
| Criterion 3 () |
Yes |
| Doubt Terrorism Proper () |
No |
Who
Perpetrator Statistics
| Number of Perpetrators |
Unknown |
| Number of Captured Perpetrators |
4 |
Casualty Information
| Total Number of Casualties |
0 Fatalities / 0 Injured |
| Total Number of Fatalities |
0 |
| Number of U.S. Fatalities |
0 |
| Number of Perpetrator Fatalities |
0 |
| Total Number of Injured |
0 |
| Number of U.S. Injured |
0 |
| Number of Perpetrators Injured |
0 |
Sources
Sources
| Ahmed Al-Haj & Matt Apuzzo, "Yemeni Arrested, Al-Qaida Bomber Eyed in Mail Plot," Associated Press, October 30, 2010, http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16026/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Qm67MsT7. |
| Saad Abedine, "Yemen-Based Al Qaeda Group Claims Responsibility for Parcel Bomb Plot," CNN, November 5, 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/11/05/yemen.security.concern/?hpt=T2. |
| BBC Monitoring Europe, "Q&A: Air Freight Bomb Plot," BBC Monitoring Europe, November 2, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11658452. |
Criteria
Criteria 1
The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion. It must involve the pursuit of more profound, systemic economic change.
Criterion 2
There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims. It is the act taken as a totality that is considered, irrespective if every individual involved in carrying out the act was aware of this intention. As long as any of the planners or decision-makers behind the attack intended to coerce, intimidate or publicize, the intentionality criterion is met.
Criterion 3
The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities. That is, the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the prohibition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants.
Doubt Terrorism Proper
The existence of a "Yes" for "Doubt Terrorism Proper?" records reservation, in the eyes of GTD analysts, that the incident in question is truly terrorism. Such uncertainty, however, was not deemed to be sufficient to disqualify the incident from inclusion into the GTD. Furthermore, such a determination of doubt is subsequently coded by GTD analysts as conforming to one of four possible alternative designations: 1) Insurgency/Guerilla Action; 2) Internecine Conflict Action; 3) Mass Murder; or 4) Purely Criminal Act.
Alternate Designation
The determination of "yes" for "Doubt Terrorism Proper" by GTD analysts is coded as conforming to one of four possible alternative designations: 1) Insurgency/Guerilla Action; 2) Internecine Conflict Action; 3) Mass Murder; or 4) Purely Criminal Act.
Successful Attack
Success of a terrorist strike is defined according to the tangible effects of the attack. For example, in a typical successful bombing, the bomb detonates and destroys property and/or kills individuals, whereas an unsuccessful bombing is one in which the bomb is discovered and defused or detonates early and kills the perpetrators. Success is not judged in terms of the larger goals of the perpetrators. For example, a bomb that exploded in a building would be counted as a success even if it did not, for example, succeed in bringing the building down or inducing government repression.
Type of Attack
This field captures the general method of attack and often reflects the broad class of tactics used. It consists of the following nine categories:
- Assassination
- Armed Assault
- Unarmed Assault
- Bombing/Explosion
- Hijacking
- Hostage taking (Barricade Incident)
- Hostage taking (Kidnapping)
- Facility / Infrastructure Attack
- Unknown
Target Information
This field captures the general type of target. It consists of the following 22 categories:
- Abortion Related
- Airports & Airlines
- Business
- Government (General)
- Government (Diplomatic)
- Educational Institution
- Food or Water Supply
- Journalists & Media
- Maritime (includes Ports and Maritime facilities)
- Military
- NGO
- Other
- Police
- Private Citizens & Property
- Religious Figures/Institutions
- Telecommunication
- Terrorists
- Tourists
- Transportation (other than aviation)
- Unknown
- Utilities
- Violent Political Parties
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