On 23 July 1974, a small bomb was found aboard a British Airways flight from Aldergrove Airport, near Belfast, to London, following a telephoned warning.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) claimed it had planted the bomb as a symbolic act, and that it had not been set to explode.

These included the Chief Constable of the RUC, Jamie Flanagan, together with his wife Florence,[4] and two police officers with their families who were travelling to London to attend an investiture; the two officers were to receive the British Empire Medal from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace[5] for their work during the ongoing Northern Ireland conflict.

Jim Molyneaux, MP, Chief Whip for the Ulster Unionist Party and a senior member of the Orange Order, was also on the flight.

The IRA said the bomb was not primed and was not meant to detonate, but that it had been planted as a symbolic act, to show that they could get through the security at Aldergrove Airport, near Belfast.