Location Wichita, Kansas, U.S. Deaths 0 | Weapons Car bomb | |
Date December 13, 2013 (2013-12-13) (UTC−5) Target Wichita Mid-Continent Airport Attack type Suicide bombing, Islamic terrorism | ||
A 58-year-old avionics technician, identified as Terry Lee Loewen, was arrested on December 13, 2013, for attempting a suicide bombing at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, where he was reportedly employed. Loewen became radicalized after reading extremist Islamic material on the Internet. Loewen also goes by Terry L. Lane.
Loewen was arrested in December 2013 when he tried to enter the grounds of the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport for the purpose of exploding a bomb. (The airport was recently renamed the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport.) In his plea, Loewen admitted he came to the attention of the FBI late in May 2013 when he became a Facebook friend of a person who was posting comments advocating violent jihad. In October 2013, Loewen met with a second undercover FBI employee who Loewen believed was a “brother” and would help him blow up a plane. Loewen said that he had scouted the airport to determine a time and place for an attack that would be sure to kill as many people as possible.
Loewen's primary influences were apparently the now-defunct Revolution Muslim website and the late Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Revolution Muslim has been associated with a number of U.S.-born extremists. Loewen also claimed he was attempting to support al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Three other American citizens have attempted to join AQAP in 2013.
The FBI claims that Loewen "was well on his way to becoming a violent terrorist" when they provided him with fake explosives. Loewen pleaded guilty on June 8, 2015. On September 1, 2015, he was sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison.