THREE Islamic extremists who planned to blow up transatlantic airliners have been jailed for life.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 29, of Walthamstow, Tanvir Hussain, 28, of Leyton, and Assad Sarwar, 29, of High Wycombe will serve minimum terms of between 32 and 40 years.

A fourth man, Umar Islam, 31, also of High Wycombe, was convicted of conspiring to murder and will spend at least 22 years behind bars.

The court had earlier heard that the gang planned to smuggle home-made bombs disguised as drinks aboard seven planes headed for the US and Canada.

Judge Richard Henriques, described the plot as the “most wicked, grave conspiracy ever proven under his jurisdiction.”

He said: “The intention was to perpetrate a terrorist outrage to stand alongside the events of 2001 in world history.

“It had reached an advanced state in its development, 37 litres of hydrogen peroxide had been purchased, sufficient to provide the charge for 20 improvised devices, that is 20 bombs.

“Had this conspiracy not been interrupted a massive loss of life would have resulted. If the detonation had happened over land the number of victims would have been greater still.”

Justice Henriques said the plot had been controlled, managed and funded by extremists in Pakistan, but the defendants had acted as “chief executives”.

Barristers representing the guilty men had earlier today argued that the airline plot was not at an advanced stage and was unlikely to have been successful.

Nadim Radford QC, mitigating for Ali, said the plotters did not have the right concentration of hydrogen peroxide to make a successful bomb, and had not manufactured the explosive HMTD or carried out a test.

She said: “Whatever they wanted to do they were not equipped to do it.”

But Justice Henriques said concentrating the hydrogen peroxide was a simple task and that if it had not been for the intervention of the authorities there would have been a huge loss of life.

Ringleader Ahmed Ali will spend at least 40 years in jail.

Assad Sarwar was jailed for at least 36 years, and Tanvir Hussain for at least 32 years' jail at Woolwich Crown Court.

Umar Islam, convicted of conspiracy to murder, was also given a life sentence and will spend at least 22 years behind bars.