Operation Silves – Etihad flight bomb plot, Sydney
On 30 July 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: "I can report last night that there has been a major Joint Counter-Terrorism operation to disrupt a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane." Four people had been arrested, and police searched premises in Surry Hills, Lakemba, Punchbowl and Wiley Park. Extra security measures, first put in place at Sydney Airport, were extended to all major airports, and travellers were told to arrive at least two hours before their flights.
Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat were each charged with two counts of acting in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act. Police alleged that IED components were sent from Turkey with help from an Islamic State commander. They alleged the device was hidden in a meat grinder in the luggage of an unwitting brother flying on an Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on 15 July 2017. SBS reported the plan was abandoned when the luggage was found to be overweight. Police said the device never got into the secure part of the airport. Police also alleged a second plan for a hydrogen sulphide gas device, which they said was "a long way from being functional". AFP Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said: "This is one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil."
Both brothers were convicted of conspiring between January and July 2017 to prepare or plan a terrorist act. On 17 December 2019, Justice Christine Adamson of the NSW Supreme Court sentenced Khaled Khayat to 40 years (non-parole 30) and Mahmoud Khayat to 36 years (non-parole 27). She said: "That no one suffered physical injury or was killed does not make it other than extremely serious." A joint Attorney-General's Department, AFP and Home Affairs submission to Parliament later said the plot "demonstrates the threat from large-scale and complex attack planning has not abated."
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