This woulda hit close to home...

(CBS) CHICAGO Authorities say terrorists planned to use common chemicals to make bombs and blow up 10 flights from Europe to the United States.

CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports at least one Chicago-bound flight was reportedly on the hit list.

The terrorist attack foiled by British authorities on Thursday was aimed at blowing up as many as 10 airplanes on trans-Atlantic flights, and plotters hoped to stage a dry run within two days, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The actual attack would have followed within days.

The foiled plot apparently targeted commercial flights on U.S. airlines departing from Britain that were headed toward the most popular American tourist cities. Flights to Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., Miami, Los Angeles and Boston were included in the plot, according to a U.S. Justice Dept. source. United, American and Contintenal Airlines were the U.S. carriers picked for the plot.

Officials say the terrorists already had what they needed to carry out the plan when the overseas plot began to unravel.

“I would say this plot was well-advanced. In other words, they had accumulated and assembled the capabilities that they needed and they were in the final stages of planning before execution,” Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said.

One official said the suicide attackers planned to use a peroxide-based solution that could ignite when sparked by a camera flash or another electronic device.

Officials say Scotland Yard became aware of the group three months ago when two suspects traveled to Pakistan to meet with Islamic extremists. Urgency increased two weeks ago when investigators learned the men were targeting aircraft. Once the suspects picked their flights, investigators moved in.

“The conception, the large number of people involved, the sophisticated design of the devices that were being considered, the sophisticated nature of the plan all suggest that this group was very determined, very skilled and very capable,” Chertoff said.

The test run was designed to see whether the plotters would be able to smuggle the needed materials aboard the planes, these officials said. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

British authorities said the attack would have used explosives smuggled in hand luggage. Police described the plot as "mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Britain said 21 people were arrested overnight, including the alleged "main players" in the plot. The scheme involved 10 flights, one U.S. counter-terrorism official said.

At least 24 people are now in custody, most of them British-born and of Pakistani descent. The youngest suspect is just 17. The police are searching for at least five more suspects, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar from London.

As many as 50 people have been involved in the plot and officials describe the terror network as large and global.

CBS News confirmed that one of the arrested men was a Heathrow Airport worker taken from his home by police in his airport uniform. Also, four arrests were made in Pakistan in recent days, two of them "very important," according to officials.

A federal law enforcement official in Washington said that at least one martyrdom tape was found during ongoing raids across England on Thursday. Such a tape, as well as the scheme to strike a range of targets at roughly the same time, is an earmark of al-Qaida.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said the suspects, whose ages ranged from 17 to the mid-30s, were looking to sneak at least some chemicals on the planes in sports drink bottles. Teams of at least two or three men were assigned to each flight, the schedules for which they had researched on the Internet, the official said.

Two other U.S. officials said British, American and Pakistani investigators were trying to trace the steps of the suspects in Pakistan and were seeking to determine whether a couple of them attended terrorist training camps there.

American investigators praised Britain for preventing a catastrophe. "If this plot had actually occurred, the world would have stood still," Mark Mershon, assistant director of the FBI, told the AP in New York.

Saw Bush on tv, trying to take credit for this. But from what I have seen the Brits were the ones that figured this out! Thanx to the Brits for all their hard work!

yup, it's been a nighmare here as far as airport security is concerened, but I'd rather have tight security than what the consequences could have been.

my friend works at the airport and he said that at one point, with all the flight cancellations and tight security that he had a line of 3000 pepole at his desk one day!

Poor people! but we have to be careful, these as.s wipes are tricky

holy cow

your all welcome, any time dudes, anytime!!