Inside foiled terror plot: Up to 18 suicide bombers hoped to detonate bottle bombs on seven planes at 30,000ft

A former CIA officer claims Scotland Yard wanted to allow jihadists plotting Britain’s worst-ever terror attack to board jumbo jets with their bombs.

Met chiefs “wanted to play to the very edge” as they built a case against fanatics who were hell-bent on eclipsing 9/11 by blowing transatlantic planes out of the sky.

But US officials demanded the dangerous ploy be dropped as tensions between the allies hit boiling point.