British undercover agents conducted surveillance on Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the London Planes Plot, as he checked flight timetables and relayed information to other operatives — a British court heard today.

Ali and seven other Muslim males are accused of plotting to blow up as many as eighteen passenger aircraft en route from England to the United States and Canada. 

Abdulla Ahmed Ali was observed by an undercover officer checking flight timetables in an internet cafe and speaking on his mobile.

Woolwich Crown Court heard how Ali entered T&I Communications in Wood Street, Walthamstow, east London on August 6, 2006.

Richard Whittam, prosecuting, described how he was watched speaking in "hushed tones in a foreign language" on taking a mobile phone call.

Ali was observed looking at the BAA Heathrow website showing "some sort" of timetable, then flicking to a flight-booking website.

He was seen taking a second call, this time in English, where he was overheard, no longer whispering, referring to radios in boxes.

Ali and seven other men are on trial accused of conspiring to murder thousands of people by exploding home-made liquid bombs on passenger jets in August 2006.

In Ali's martyrdom video, he says: "The time has come for you to be destroyed" and that he is "over the moon that Allah has given me the opportunity to lead this blessed operation."

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