​​Explosion Over the Sea

On December 11, 1994, a man identifying himself as Armando Forlani, an Italian citizen, boarded a Philippine Airlines Boeing 747 flying from Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to the city of Cebu - also in the Philippines. The flight was nearly empty, with just 26 passengers and 20 crew members on board. This was only the first leg of the journey; from Cebu the aircraft was scheduled to continue on to Tokyo.

The passport in the name of Armando Forlani was fake. The man behind it was Ramzi Yousef, a Palestinian terrorist. A year earlier, he had carried out the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, which killed six people and injured 1,042.

Shortly after takeoff, Forlani went to the lavatory, taking his toiletry kit with him. There, he assembled an improvised explosive device using liquid explosives. The explosive mixture was stored in a contact lens liquid bottle, which had passed through airport security without raising suspicion. A wristwatch was used as a timer, and the detonator was hidden in the heel of his left shoe.

Upon returning to his seat, the terrorist placed the bomb in the pocket of a life vest under seat 26K, located on the right side of the aircraft. This seat was originally near the center fuel tank. However, due to a modified cabin layout, it had been moved two rows forward from the tank’s center.

Yousef set the timer so the bomb would explode four hours later. By that time, according to his plan, the plane would be on the second leg of its journey, en route to Tokyo and flying over the ocean.

In Cebu, the terrorist and the other passengers disembarked. After that, 256 new passengers boarded the aircraft for the flight to Tokyo. Seat 26K was taken by a 24-year-old Japanese businessman named Haruki Ikegami. The aircraft departed for Tokyo with a 40-minute delay.

Exactly four hours after the timer had been set, as the plane was flying over the Japanese island of Minamidaito, the bomb under the seat exploded. The blast tore a 0.2 m² hole in the cabin floor, destroyed the seat, and severed several control cables running through the ceiling. Haruki Ikegami took the full force of the explosion and, unknowingly, saved the aircraft from decompression and structural failure. The lower half of his body fell through the hole. He was pulled out, but died two minutes later. Ten nearby passengers were injured.

After the explosion, the aircraft rolled sharply to the right, but the autopilot quickly leveled it out - only to then fail completely. The first officer took manual control. Due to the damage, the ailerons were no longer functioning. Using engine throttles, reducing speed (to help control turns and descend), and dumping fuel (to lessen landing stress on the gear), the crew managed to safely land the aircraft at Naha Airport on Okinawa Island. In the end, only one person died in the attack.

Ramzi Yousef was arrested on February 7, 1995, in Pakistan while preparing a series of bombings targeting 11 American aircraft. He was later sentenced to 240 years in prison. The damaged Boeing was repaired and returned to service with Philippine Airlines. Two years later, it was converted into a freighter and continued flying for various carriers until 2008. In 2018, it was scrapped for metal.