Breivik told police interviewers he had learned how to fly a Cessna plane by watching videos on YouTube and downloading user manuals from the internet, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports.

“Landing is the hard part. Taking off and flying at altitude isn’t so difficult,” he said.

Breivik’s plan was to make his way to Fornebu airfield near Oslo and steal a small Cessna aircraft.

The 32-year-old Norwegian said he was inspired by Carlos the Jackal, one the most highly feared international terrorists of the 1970s and 1980s.

He told police he intended using a specially designed bag to refuel the plane in mid-air. This, he hoped, would enable him to reach potential destinations such as Moldova, Belarus or Serbia.

Alongside Armenia and Israel, Serbia is listed as a country Breivik considered amenable to his aims in his lengthy terrorist manifesto.

“Breivik has said he intended to flee and talked about reaching friendly countries in a plane,” Oslo police spokesman Roar Hansen told the newspaper.

“He considered it but deviated from the plan, concluding that Utøya would be his final stop,”

Breivik told police he rethought the idea after deciding it would have been tricky to get away alive. Furthermore, any potential host destination would likely have extradited him under enormous pressure from Western countries, he said.

“He concluded that it wasn’t feasible,” said Hansen.

Anders Behring Breivik set off a bomb outside government offices in Oslo on July 22nd, killing 8 people. He then travelled 40 kilometres to the island of Utøya where he shot and killed 69 mostly young people attending a youth camp.

He is set to appear in court on terrorism charges in April.