Terrifying details of last year's botched terror attacks on Glasgow Airport and London were made public for the first time as the brother of one of the gang was jailed for withholding information about the Scottish plot.

The Old Bailey in London was told yesterday that one of the bombers, Kafeel Ahmed, knowing that police were closing in, launched a suicide mission when he drove a Cherokee Jeep, laden with petrol and gas canisters, into the main terminal building at the airport on its busiest day of the year.

After a number of failed attempts to drive the vehicle through the terminal door, a passenger threw two petrol bombs out of the car's windows in opposite directions as passengers queued just yards away.

Ahmed also began to pour and splash fuel from a can on to the area outside the vehicle's window and appeared to throw another petrol bomb before he was knocked to the ground and restrained.

Ahmed, who suffered 90% burns, later died from injuries sustained in the attack.

The first official details of the plot emerged yesterday after Ahmed's brother, Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26, an NHS doctor, pleaded guilty to withholding information about terrorism, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of five years.

He had received an e-mail about the attack from his brother but failed to go to police after the incident in Glasgow.

His sentence was reduced to 18 months because he did not read the e-mail until after the attack had taken place. He will be released from custody and voluntarily deported back to India almost immediately because of time in jail he has already served, the court was told.

The e-mail, written two days before the Glasgow attack, directed him to online documents containing his brother's will and instructions on how to frustrate and mislead investigators.

Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said it was clear from the e-mail his brother sent that he expected to die in the attack, and that his body would be left unrecognisable. In the e-mail Kafeel Ahmed said: "I accept that so far as you personally were concerned there is no sign of your being an extremist or party to extremist views."

However, the judge said he had agreed to tell police his brother's cover story that he was away in Iceland working on a global warming project.

The Old Bailey heard that Kafeel Ahmed, 28, had targeted two nightclubs in London with explosives made at his home in Glasgow before turning his attention to the airport.

Two car bombs left near the nightclubs in London's West End at the end of June last year had failed to explode.

The first was in a green Mercedes car parked near Piccadilly Circus. It was found when an ambulance crew noticed the car was filling up with fumes.

A quick-thinking police officer disconnected a mobile phone he found in the car before bomb squad officers arrived.

The second lethal device was discovered in a Mercedes which had been towed away after being found illegally parked.

Knowing the police were closing in, Kafeel Ahmed launched the airport suicide mission and drove another car bomb into Glasgow Airport.

Jonathan Laidlaw, for the prosecution, yesterday said: "He (Kafeel Ahmed) then, having found himself from his perspective out of position, reversed the Jeep and made the first of a number of attempts to drive the vehicle through the airport door, repeatedly hitting pillars and the door frame.

"Those who witnessed him described a set and determined face as he stared forward. At that point, the vehicle was then 20ft from passengers queuing within the terminal building. His passenger lowered his window and threw a petrol bomb across the bonnet in the direction of the taxi rank and then threw a second of these devices in the opposite direction.

"At the same time the driver, the defendant's brother, began to pour and splash fuel from a can on to the area outside the car window and appeared to throw a petrol bomb.

"He got out of the vehicle and was engulfed in flames that swept around the Jeep and terminal building. He appeared to try and prevent others from getting to him or the vehicle. He kicked out but eventually, he being on fire, he was extinguished, subdued, handcuffed and arrested."