Giveaway for Plane Bomb Plot: His Bag Was Too Heavy

A man tried to blow up a plane carrying 400 people with a bomb hidden inside a meat grinder but was reportedly thwarted because his bag was too heavy to be checked in. The BBC reports Khaled Khayat, 51, was convicted by a jury Wednesday in Australia, where he was accused of plotting to bring down a July 2017 Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates with military-grade explosives sent from Turkey in a plot "inspired and directed" by the Islamic State, per police. Khayat was also convicted in a plot to carry out a gas attack in Sydney, the Guardian notes. His 34-year-old brother, Mahmoud, is also accused in that case, though the jury is still deliberating his involvement, according to the New South Wales Supreme Court. Khayat, whose lawyer claimed he was only trying to prevent a terrorist attack, faces up to life in prison at his July 26 sentencing. (More bomb plot stories.)