Glasgow Airport Bombers
The attempted June 2007 bombing of Scotland's Glasgow Airport may have produced the most enduring image of terrorism failure. Two men tried to ram a Jeep filled with propane canisters through the front doors of the airport in order to set off an explosion inside. But the car got hung up on the door frame, so the two men got out and tried to light the car on fire using gasoline. Instead, they only managed to set themselves alight before being subdued by extinguisher-wielding civilians and arrested. News footage worldwide was filled with images of the burned-out hull of their car stuck just outside the airport entrance. The driver of the car, Kafeel Ahmed, died from his burns, but Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi doctor, was sentenced to at least 32 years in prison for his role in the attack.
The airport attempt turned out to have been the pair's second failed terrorist attack in as many days. Authorities believe that Ahmed and Abdullah parked two car bombs in downtown London the day before, both of which also failed to explode.