The crime story of the Glasgow Airport terror attack

Shortly after 3pm on June 30, 2007, a dark green Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters and petrol cans was driven towards the glass doors of the main entrance to the terminal building.

Inside the vehicle that fateful Saturday was local hospital doctor Bilal Abdulla, 27, and 28-year-old engineer Kafeel Ahmed.

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The two occupants had turned the loaded vehicle into a massive mobile bomb which they hoped would explode killing passengers and their families as they were heading for their holiday flights.

Instead of crashing through the entrance their Jeep instead hit a concrete bollard and did not explode as they had hoped.

Foiled, Abdulla and Ahmed set the vehicle on file in a bid to ignite the gas canisters in the boot and create an explosion. Ahmed also covered himself in petrol and became a human fireball.

At this point terrified holidaymakers began to run for their lives to escape what they were witnessing.

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Meanwhile Abdulla and Ahmed fought with two police officers, one off duty, who had raced to the blaze scene.

Despite his severe burns Kafeel Ahmed carried on fighting even after one of the officers sprayed CS gas in his face.

He continually resisted efforts to pull him away from the car where he was trying to set of the canisters and create a giant explosion.

Eventually both terrorists were brought under control with the help of six members of the public, including three airport workers.

All eight would later learn would later learned that both men had injected themselves with morphine to dull any pain from the flames or injuries they suffered.

It was the first time Scotland had been the direct target of a terrorist attack.

Ahmed was initially taken to Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley before being transferred to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary specialist burns unit, where he died almost five weeks later on August 2.

The Royal Alexandra was the same hospital where Bilal Abdulla had worked as a junior house doctor and from where he had stolen the morphine.

Abdulla was taken to Govan Police Station in Glasgow after the airport attack which has special holding facilities for terrorists.

He was later transferred to Paddington Green Police Station in London after the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini gave her consent to a combined prosecution in England under English law.

So why did the bombers pick Glasgow as a target?

Their attack appears to have been a response to the failure of two massive car bombs in London the previous day, Friday, June 29, which Ahmed and Abdulla had been planning for months.

On this occasion they had driven to the capital in two cars packed with gas canisters, petrol and thousands of nails.

The vehicles were left outside Tiger Tiger nightclub, near Piccadilly Circus, and in nearby Cockspur Street in the city's West End.

The plan was to detonate the bombs using a homemade device of a syringe full of matches and a mobile phone but the cars failed to explode.

With the police on their trail Abdulla and Ahmed decided to launch a second suicide bid, this time in Scotland.

It also emerged that the airport attack may have been plotted from the tranquil surroundings of Rowardennan on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Both terrorists were said to have hired a £150-a-night chalet directly opposite the local hotel for a week beforehand.

Prior to the attack the Jeep had been spotted in it's car park around lunchtime having coffee before heading to Glasgow.

Shortly before 3pm, Ahmed sent his brother, Sabeel, a text message instructing him to check his email where he would find a full explanation of what was about to happen in Glasgow.

Following the second failed murder bid the Airport went into lockdown and it was declared a no-fly zone.

However it wasn't the end of the immediate terrorist threat, Later that day Royal Alexandra Hospital's accident and emergency department was evacuated and then closed when a suspected explosive device on Ahmed's body was found and removed safely.

A brave army explosives expert removed the belt and made it safe in a controlled explosion at nearby Ferguslie Cricket Club.

The following day police carried out a controlled explosion on a car in the car park of the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Strathclyde Police also searched a number of houses in nearby Houston and made arrests in Paisley.

The airport was reopened that Sunday and flights resumed after the jeep had been removed in the morning.

In December 2008 Abdullah was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiracy to murder for the terrorists incidents in both London and Glasgow, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a requirement that he spend at least 32 years in jail.

Cops are convinced Abdulla and Ahmed had been planning up to five car bombings after six months of preparation.

They had also gone on scouting missions to Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Downing Street and music festivals.

In 2010 the eight man who had sacrificed their safety that Saturday afternoon Stephen Clarkson, Michael Kerr, Henry Lambie, Michael McDonald, John Smeaton, Alex McIlveen, Torquil Campbell and Stewart Ferguson were presented with the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.

Taxi driver Alex McIlveen, then 45, who helped tackle both men had torn a tendon in his foot when kicking Ahmed after he had set himself on fire. He had just dropped off a fare at the airport.

In an interview in 2017 he said: I’m glad I stepped in to help. In the heat of the moment nobody knew what these guys were planning on doing, or what weapons they could have been carrying - they needed to be stopped.

“It was the busiest days of the who year, there were thousands of people, and if they had set that place off it would have been a disaster.

“So everyone who did something that day, they know fine well they did something right.”

Michael Kerr, who gave evidence at the trial of Bilal Abdulla in London, spent four days in hospital after the attack with a broken leg and was the most seriously injured of the heroes.

On the day of his 40 birthday he took on Abdulla -who had been attacking Sgt Torquil Campbell - shortly after arriving home from holiday with his family.

Abdulla then punched Michael which sent him flying next to the burning jeep.

At this point another of the heroes baggage handler John Smeaton pulled him to safety.

Smeaton also tackled Ahmed after he emerged from the burning jeep.

He shot to global fame the following day after his famous warning to other terrorists - “This is Glasgow - we’ll set aboot ye” - was broadcast around the world.

In 2008 in a separate ceremony he was also awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal by Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace It was Stephen Clarkson, then 42, who finally brought Ahmed to the ground with a blow to the chest.

He was at the airport to pick up family members returning from abroad.

His courage enabled police officers at the scene to handcuff Ahmed before he was taken to hospital.

Stephen later said: “I’m no hero. I only did what thousands of Scots would have done when hundreds of lives were at risk.

“I hope other would-be terrorists get the message that Scotland will not stand for terrorism.”

PC Stewart Ferguson, then 41, was at the airport picking up his parents when he saw the Jeep suddenly crash into the terminal.

This photo of PC Ferguson turning a fire extinguisher on Kafeel Ahmed after he set himself ablaze became an iconic image across the world The hero cop later said of that day: ”It never entered my mind to walk away because that would have been failing in my duty."

Both he and Sgt Campbell also received a Very High Commendation from the Chief Constable for tackling the two bombers.

On the tenth anniversary of the attack in 2017 Detective Supt David Swindle, who was in charge of the police operation on the day, told the BBC: "If it had not been for the concrete pillar that vehicle could have been inside the airport.

"Thankfully only for the sake of that and the intervention of members of the public, who actually challenged these people, we will never know what could have happened."