Cargo plane bomb found in Britain was primed to blow up over US

Device thought to have been sent by Yemen-based al-Qaida made safe three hours from explosion.

The shocking reality of the terrorist printer cartridge bomb plot emerged today when Scotland Yard revealed that the device taken from a plane in Britain was timed to explode in mid-air over the eastern United States.

The bomb was found by police on board a cargo plane at East Midlands airport last month after detailed information was passed through intelligence channels to the UK and US from Saudi Arabia.

The Guardian understands that an alarm clock on a mobile phone attached to the printer bomb was set to go off at 10.30am BST. Tests revealed that if the cargo plane's journey had gone to schedule, the device – in a package addressed to a synagogue in Chicago – would have gone off in midair over the eastern seaboard of the US.

The device found in the UK was one of two discovered after a Saudi tip-off. The other was at Dubai airport. Both were capable of bringing down an aircraft.

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