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Pan Am Flight 103

May 04, 2023

"Flight 103" redirects here. For other uses, see Flight 103 (disambiguation).

Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAN103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing.[1] Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom, as well as its deadliest aviation disaster ever.[2]

Pan Am Flight 103
Lockerbie bombing
The remains of the forward section from Clipper Maid of the Seas on Tundergarth Hill
Bombing
Date21 December 1988 (1988-12-21);
34 years, 4 months ago
SummaryIn-flight breakup due to terrorist bombing
SiteLockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
55°06′56″N 003°21′31″W / 55.11556°N 3.35861°W / 55.11556; -3.35861Coordinates: 55°06′56″N 003°21′31″W / 55.11556°N 3.35861°W / 55.11556; -3.35861
Total fatalities270
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 747-121
Aircraft nameClipper Maid of the Seas
OperatorPan American World Airways
IATA flight No.PA103
ICAO flight No.PAA103
Call signCLIPPER 103
RegistrationN739PA
Flight originFrankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, West Germany (now Germany)
1st stopoverHeathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
2nd stopoverJohn F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, New York, United States
DestinationDetroit Metropolitan Airport, Michigan, United States
Occupants259
Passengers243
Crew16
Fatalities259
Survivors0
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities11

Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991. In 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands, after protracted negotiations and UN sanctions. In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing. In August 2009, he was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in May 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack.

In 2003, Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims, although he maintained that he had never given the order for the attack.[3] Acceptance of responsibility was part of a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution for sanctions against Libya to be lifted. Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi's status as a government employee.[4]

During the First Libyan Civil War in 2011, former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil claimed that the Libyan leader had personally ordered the bombing,[3] while investigators have long believed that Megrahi did not act alone, and have been reported as questioning retired Stasi agents about a possible role in the attack.

Some relatives of the dead, including Lockerbie campaigner Jim Swire, believe the bomb was planted at Heathrow Airport, and not sent via feeder flights from Malta, as per the US and UK governments. A sleeper cell belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command) had been operating in West Germany in the months before the Pan Am bombing.[5]

In 2020, US authorities indicted the Tunisia resident and Libyan national Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who was 37 years old at the time of the incident,[6] for participating in the bombing. He was taken into custody in December 2022.[7]

Aircraft

 
N739PA as Clipper Morning Light at San Francisco International Airport in 1978
 
N739PA as Clipper Maid of the Seas at Los Angeles International Airport in 1987 wearing an older livery: The explosion occurred almost directly under the second A in "Pan Am" on this side of the fuselage, in the forward cargo hold.

The aircraft operating Pan Am Flight 103 was a Boeing 747-121, registered N739PA[8] and named Clipper Maid of the Seas;[9] prior to 1979, it had been named Clipper Morning Light.[10] It was the 15th 747 built, and was delivered in February 1970,[11][12] one month after the first 747 entered service with Pan Am.[11][13] In 1978, as Clipper Morning Light, it had appeared in "Conquering the Atlantic", the fourth episode of the BBC Television documentary series Diamonds in the Sky, presented by Julian Pettifer.[14]

Flight

Pan Am 103 originated as a feeder flight at Frankfurt Airport, West Germany, using a Boeing 727 and the flight number PA103-A. Both Pan Am and TWA routinely changed the type of aircraft operating different legs of a flight. PA103 was bookable as either a single Frankfurt–New York or a Frankfurt–Detroit itinerary, though a scheduled change of aircraft took place in London's Heathrow Airport.

After the bombing, the flight number was changed, in accordance with standard practice among airlines after disasters. Within days, the Frankfurt–London–New York–Detroit route was being served by Pan Am Flight 3 until the company's demise in 1991.[15]

Explosion and collision timeline

Departure

On its arrival at Heathrow Terminal 3 on the day of the disaster, the passengers and their luggage (as well as an unaccompanied suitcase which was part of the interline luggage on the feeder flight) were transferred directly to Clipper Maid of the Seas, whose previous flight had originated in Los Angeles and arrived via San Francisco. The plane, which operated the flight's transatlantic leg, pushed back from the terminal at 18:04 and took off from runway 27R at 18:25, bound for New York JFK Airport and then Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Contrary to many popular accounts of the disaster (though repeated, with reference, below), the flight, which had a scheduled gate departure time of 18:00, left Heathrow airport on time.[16][17]

Loss of contact

At 18:58, the aircraft established two-way radio contact with Shanwick Oceanic Area Control in Prestwick on 123.95 MHz.

Clipper Maid of the Seas approached the corner of the Solway Firth at 19:01, and crossed the coast at 19:02 UTC. On scope, the aircraft showed transponder code, or "squawk", 0357 and flight level 310. At this point, the Clipper Maid of the Seas was flying at 31,000 feet (9,400 m) on a heading of 316° magnetic, and at a speed of 313 kn (580 km/h; 360 mph) calibrated airspeed. Subsequent analysis of the radar returns by RSRE concluded that the aircraft was tracking 321° (grid) and travelling at a ground speed of 803 km/h (499 mph; 434 kn).[citation needed]

At 19:02:44, Alan Topp, the clearance delivery officer at Shanwick, transmitted its oceanic route clearance. The aircraft did not acknowledge this message. Clipper Maid of the Seas' "squawk" then flickered off. Air traffic control tried to make contact with the flight, with no response. Then a loud noise was recorded on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) at 19:02:50. Five radar echoes fanning out appeared, instead of one.[18][19] Comparison of the CVR to the radar returns showed that, eight seconds after the explosion, the wreckage had a 1-nautical-mile (1.9 km) spread.[20] A British Airways pilot, flying the London–Glasgow shuttle near Carlisle, called Scottish authorities to report that he could see a huge fire on the ground.[21]

Disintegration of aircraft

 
Air Accident Investigation Branch model showing fuselage and tail fracture lines and ground locations of parts:
Green—southern wreckage trail;
red—northern wreckage trail;
grey—impact crater;
yellow—Rosebank (Lockerbie);
white—not recovered/identified.[20]: 15–19 

The explosion punched a 50 cm (20 in) hole on the left side of the fuselage. Investigators from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded that no emergency procedures had been started in the cockpit.[22] The CVR, located in the tail section of the aircraft, was found in a field by police searchers within 24 hours. No distress call was recorded; a 180-millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft's communications center.[23] The explosion in the aircraft hold was magnified by the uncontrolled decompression of the fuselage - a large difference in pressure between the aircraft's interior and exterior. The aircraft's elevator- and rudder-control cables had been disrupted and the fuselage pitched downwards and to the left.[24]

Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the British Department for Transport concluded that the nose of the aircraft was blown off and separated from the main fuselage within three seconds of the explosion. The nose cone was briefly held on by a band of metal, but facing aft, like the lid of a can. It then sheared off, up, and backwards to starboard, striking off the number-three engine and landing some distance outside the town, on a hill in Tundergarth.

Fuselage impact

The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19,000 ft (5,800 m), when its dive became nearly vertical.[20]: 44  Due to the extreme flutter, the vertical stabilizer disintegrated, which in turn produced large yawing movements. As the forward fuselage continued to disintegrate, the flying debris tore off both of the horizontal stabilizers, while the rear fuselage, the remaining three engines, and the fin torque box separated.[22] The rear fuselage, parts of the baggage hold, and three landing gear units landed at Rosebank Crescent.[20]: 44  The fuselage consisting of the main wing box structure landed in Sherwood Crescent, destroying three homes and creating a large impact crater. The 200,000 lb (91,000 kg) of jet fuel ignited by the impact started fires, which destroyed several additional houses.[20]: 4  Investigators determined that both wings had landed in the Sherwood Crescent crater, saying, "the total absence of debris from the wing primary structure found remote from the crater confirmed the initial impression that the complete wing box structure had been present at the main impact."[20]: 16 

The British Geological Survey 23 kilometres (14 mi) away at Eskdalemuir registered a seismic event at 19:03:36 measuring 1.6 on the moment magnitude scale, which was attributed to the impact. According to the report, the rest of the wreckage composed of "the complete fuselage forward of approximately station 480 to station 380 and incorporating the flight deck and nose landing gear was found as one piece in a field approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of Lockerbie."[20]: 16  This field, located opposite Tundergarth Church, is where the wreckage most easily identified with images of the accident in the media fell, having fallen "almost flat on its left side, but with a slight nose-down attitude."[20]: 16 

Victims

Nationality Passengers Crew Ground Total
  Argentina 2 - - 2
  Belgium 1 - - 1
  Bolivia 1 - - 1
  Canada 3 - - 3
  France 2 1 - 3
  West Germany 3 1 - 4
  Hungary 4 - - 4
  India 3 - - 3
  Ireland 3 - - 3
  Israel 1 - - 1
  Italy 2 - - 2
  Jamaica 1 - - 1
  Japan 1 - - 1
  Philippines 1 - - 1
  South Africa 1 - - 1
  Spain - 1 - 1
  Sweden 2 1 - 3
  Switzerland 1 - - 1
  Trinidad and Tobago 1 - - 1
  United Kingdom 31 1 11 43
  United States 179 11 - 190
Total 243 16 11 270

All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed, as were 11 residents of Lockerbie on the ground. Of the 270 total fatalities, 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. Nineteen other nationalities were represented, with four or fewer passengers per country.[9][25]

Crew

Flight 103 was under the command of Captain James B. MacQuarrie (55), a Pan Am pilot since 1964 with almost 11,000 flight hours, of which over 4,000 had been accrued in 747 aircraft. He previously served three years in the U.S. Navy and five years in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, where he held the rank of major. First Officer Raymond R. Wagner (52), a pilot with Pan Am since 1966 with almost 5,500 hours in the 747 and a total of nearly 12,000 hours, had previously served eight years in the New Jersey National Guard. Flight Engineer Jerry D. Avritt (46), who joined Pan Am in 1980 after 13 years with National Airlines, had more than 8,000 hours of flying time, with nearly 500 hours in the 747. The cockpit crew was based at JFK.[20]

Six of the 13 cabin crew members became naturalized US citizens while working for Pan Am. The cabin crew was based at Heathrow and lived in the London area or commuted from around Europe. All were originally hired by Pan Am and seniority ranged from 9 months to 28 years.

The captain, first officer, flight engineer, a flight attendant and several first-class passengers were found still strapped to their seats inside the nose section when it crashed in Tundergarth. A flight attendant was found alive by a farmer's wife, but died before help could be summoned. Some passengers may have remained alive briefly after impact; a pathologist's report concluded that at least two of these passengers might have survived if they had been found soon enough.[26][19][27]

Passengers

Syracuse University students

Thirty-five of the passengers were students from Syracuse University, who participated in the university's Division of International Programs Abroad (abbreviated as "DIPA Program" and renamed to "Syracuse University Abroad" in 2006, while also known as "Syracuse Abroad" and "Study Abroad Program") and were returning home for Christmas following a semester in Syracuse's London and European campuses. Ten of these students were from other universities and colleges (including but not limited to Colgate University and University of Colorado) with collaborative relationships with Syracuse.

Many of their bodies were found at Rosebank Crescent, 1⁄2 mi (0.8 km) from Sherwood Crescent. The rear fuselage of the plane, where many of them sat, destroyed one of the houses of Rosebank Crescent, 71 Park Place, the home of Lockerbie resident Ella Ramsden, who survived. The bodies of two of these students were never recovered.[citation needed]

Notable passengers

 
Dryfesdale Cemetery memorial stone dedicated to Bernt Carlsson

Prominent among the passenger victims was the 50-year-old UN Commissioner for Namibia (then South West Africa), Bernt Carlsson, who would have attended the signing ceremony of the New York Accords at the UN headquarters the following day.[28] James Fuller, an American automotive executive who worked for Volkswagen, was returning home from a meeting with Volkswagen executives in Germany. Also aboard was Irish Olympic sailor Peter Dix[29] and rock musician Paul Jeffreys and his wife.[30][31]

US government officials

Aboard the flight were U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Special Agents Daniel Emmett O'Connor and Ronald Albert Lariviere.[32][33] Matthew Gannon, the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was sitting in seat 14J, which is located in the business class (branded as "Clipper Class") cabin.[34] A group of US intelligence specialists was on board the flight. Their presence gave rise to speculations and conspiracy theories that one or more of them had been targeted.[35]

Lockerbie residents

Eleven Lockerbie residents on Sherwood Crescent were killed when the wing section hit the house at 13 Sherwood Crescent at more than 800 km/h (500 mph) and exploded, creating a crater 47 m (154 ft) long and with a volume of 560 m3 (730 cu yd).[20] The property was completely destroyed and its two occupants were killed. Their bodies were never found. Several other houses and their foundations were destroyed, and 21 others were damaged beyond repair.

A family of four was killed when their house at 15 Sherwood Crescent exploded.[36] A couple and their daughter were killed by the explosion in their house at 16 Sherwood Crescent. Their son witnessed a fireball engulfing his home from a neighbour's garage, where he had been repairing his sister's bicycle.[37] The other Lockerbie residents who died were two widows aged 82 and 81, who also both lived in Sherwood Crescent; they were the two oldest victims of the disaster.[38] The bodies of both 15 Sherwood Crescent children and both 16 Sherwood Crescent parents were never recovered.[citation needed]

Patrick Keegans, Lockerbie's Roman Catholic priest, was preparing to visit friends around 7:00 that evening with his mother, having recently been appointed a parish priest of the town.[39] Keegans' house at 1 Sherwood Crescent was the only one on the street that was not either destroyed by the impact or gutted by fire.[40] According to a BBC article on the fire published in 2018, Keegans had gone upstairs to make sure that he had hidden his mother's Christmas present, and recalls, "Immediately after that, there was an enormous explosion". The same source claims that, following this, "the shaking stopped and to his surprise he was uninjured". Keegans' mother was also unharmed, having been shielded from debris by a refrigerator-freezer.[39]

Many of the passengers' relatives, most of them from the US, arrived there within days to identify the dead. Volunteers from Lockerbie set up and staffed canteens which stayed open 24 hours a day and offered relatives, soldiers, police officers, and social workers free sandwiches, hot meals, beverages, and counseling. The people of the town washed, dried, and ironed every piece of clothing that was found once the police had determined they were of no forensic value, so that as many items as possible could be returned to the relatives. The BBC's Scotland correspondent, Andrew Cassell, reported on the 10th anniversary of the bombing that the townspeople had "opened their homes and hearts" to the relatives, bearing their own losses "stoically and with enormous dignity", and that the bonds forged then continue to this day.[41]

Prior alerts

Two alerts were released shortly before the bombing.

Helsinki warning

On 5 December 1988 (16 days prior to the attack), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a security bulletin saying that, on that day, a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the US Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, and told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization; he said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier.[42]

The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the US government and the State Department cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies. The FAA sent it to all US carriers, including Pan Am, which had charged each of the passengers a $5 security surcharge, promising a "program that will screen passengers, employees, airport facilities, baggage, and aircraft with unrelenting thoroughness";[43] the security team in Frankfurt found the warning under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing.[19] One of the Frankfurt security screeners, whose job was to spot explosive devices under X-ray, told ABC News that she had first learned what Semtex (a plastic explosive) was during her ABC interview 11 months after the bombing.[44]

On 13 December, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the US Embassy in Moscow and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists and businessmen.[45]

PLO's warning

Just days before the bombing, security forces in European countries, including the UK, were put on alert after a warning from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that extremists might launch terrorist attacks to undermine the then-ongoing dialogue between the United States and the PLO.[46]

Claims of responsibility

 
CIA analysis of various claims of responsibility for the bombing

On the day of the bombing, the French Directorate-General for External Security was informed by their British counterpart that the UK suspected the Libyans to be behind the bombing.[47]

According to a CIA analysis dated 22 December 1988, several groups were quick to claim responsibility in telephone calls in the United States and Europe:

  • A male caller claimed that a group called the "Guardians of the Islamic Revolution" had destroyed the plane in retaliation for Iran Air Flight 655 being shot down by US forces in the Persian Gulf the previous July.
  • A caller claiming to represent the Islamic Jihad Organization told ABC News in New York that the group had planted the bomb to commemorate Christmas.
  • Another caller claimed the plane had been downed by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.[48][49]

The list's author noted, "We consider the claims from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as the most credible one received so far," but the analysis concluded, "We cannot assign responsibility for this tragedy to any terrorist group at this time. We anticipate that, as often happens, many groups will seek to claim credit."[48][49]

Muammar Gaddafi took responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the victims' families in 2003, though he maintained that he had not ordered the attack.[3] On 22 February 2011, during the Libyan Civil War, former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil stated in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Expressen that Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing.[50] Jalil claimed to possess "documents that prove [his allegations] and [that he is] ready to hand them over to the international criminal court."[51]

In December 2013, the original prime suspects in the bombing were revealed to have been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), a Syria-based group led by Ahmed Jibril. A flood of warnings immediately preceding the disaster had included one that read: 'team of Palestinians not associated with PLO intends to attack US targets in Europe. Time frame is present. Targets specified are Pan Am Airlines and US military bases.' Five weeks before this warning, Jibril's right-hand man, Haffez Dalkamoni, had been arrested in Frankfurt with a known bomb-maker, Marwen Khreesat. "Later US intelligence officials confirmed that members of the group had been monitoring Pan Am's facilities at Frankfurt airport. On Dalkamoni's account bombs made by Khreesat were at large somewhere."[52] A deep-cover CIA agent was told by up to 15 high-level Syrian officials that the PFLP-GC was involved and that officials interacted with Jibril "on a constant basis".[53] In 2014, an Iranian ex-spy asserted that Iran ordered the attack.[54] The Iranian foreign ministry swiftly denied any involvement.[55]

Investigation

Main article: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing investigation

Civil investigation

Crash site

 
Cassette player similar to the one used in the disaster

The initial investigation into the crash site by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary involved many helicopter surveys, satellite imaging, and a search of the area by police and soldiers. The wreckage of the crash was scattered over 2,000 square kilometers (770 sq mi), and AAIB investigators were confronted by a massive jigsaw puzzle in trying to piece the plane back together. In total, 4 million pieces of wreckage were collected and registered on computer files. More than 10,000 pieces of debris were retrieved, tagged, and entered into a computer tracking system. The perpetrators had apparently intended the plane to crash into the sea, destroying any traceable evidence, but its explosion over land left a trail of evidence.[56]

The fuselage of the aircraft was reconstructed by air accident investigators, revealing a 20-inch (510 mm) hole consistent with an explosion in the forward cargo hold. Examination of the baggage containers revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening, pitting, and severe damage, indicating a "high-energy event" had taken place inside it. A series of test explosions was carried out to confirm the precise location and quantity of explosive used.

Fragments of a Samsonite suitcase believed to have contained the bomb were recovered, together with parts and pieces of circuit board identified as components of a Toshiba 'Bombeat' RT-SF16, radio cassette player, similar to that used to conceal a Semtex bomb seized by West German police from the Palestinian militant group PLO-GC two months earlier. Items of baby clothing, which were subsequently proven to have been made in Malta, were thought to have come from the same suitcase.

Witnesses

The clothes were traced to a Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, who became a key prosecution witness, testifying that he sold the clothes to a man of Libyan appearance. Gauci was interviewed 23 times, giving contradictory evidence about who had bought the clothes, that person's age and appearance, and the date of purchase, but later identified Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. As Megrahi had only been in Malta on 7 December, that date was assumed to be the purchase date. This date is in doubt, as Gauci had testified that Malta's Christmas lights had not been on when the clothes had been purchased; the lights were later found to have been switched on on 6 December. Scottish police had also failed to inform the defence that another witness had testified seeing Libyan men making a similar purchase on a different day.[57] An official report, providing information not made available to the defence during the original trial, stated that on 19 April 1999, four days before identifying al-Megrahi for the first time, Gauci had seen a picture of al-Megrahi in a magazine that connected him to the bombing, a fact that could have distorted his judgement.[58] Gauci was shown the same magazine during his testimony at al-Megrahi's trial and asked if he had identified the photograph in April 1999 as being the person who purchased the clothing; he was then asked if that person was in the court. Gauci then identified al-Megrahi for the court, stating, "He is the man on this side. He resembles him a lot".[59]

A circuit board fragment, allegedly found embedded in a piece of charred material, was identified as part of an electronic timer similar to one found on a Libyan intelligence agent who had been arrested 10 months previously for carrying materials for a Semtex bomb. The timer was allegedly traced through its Swiss manufacturer, Mebo, to the Libyan military, and Mebo employee Ulrich Lumpert identified the fragment at al-Megrahi's trial. Mebo's owner, Edwin Bollier, testified at the trial that the Scottish police had originally shown him a fragment of a brown eight-ply circuit board from a prototype timer which had never been supplied to Libya. Yet the sample he was asked to identify at the trial was a green 9-ply circuit board that Mebo had indeed supplied to Libya. Bollier wanted to pursue this discrepancy, but was told by trial judge Lord Sutherland that he could not do so.[60] Bollier claimed that in 1991 he had declined an offer of $4 million from the FBI (equivalent to $7.2 million in 2021 dollars) in exchange for his support of the main line of inquiry, though this claim has never been verified.[61]

Criminal inquiry

Known as the Lockerbie bombing and the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK, it was described by Scotland's Lord Advocate as the UK's largest criminal inquiry led by the smallest police force in Britain, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary.[62]

After a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US FBI, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for murder were issued on 13 November 1991 against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta. UN sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on 5 April 1999 to Scottish police at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands, which was selected as a neutral venue for their trial.

Both of the accused chose not to give evidence in court. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to life imprisonment, but Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was refused on 14 March 2002, and his application to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003. On 23 September 2003, Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) for his conviction to be reviewed, and on 28 June 2007, the SCCRC announced its decision to refer the case to the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh after it found he "may have suffered a miscarriage of justice".[63]

Megrahi served just over 10 years of his sentence (beginning 5 April 1999),[64] first in Barlinnie prison, Glasgow, and later in Greenock prison, Renfrewshire, throughout which time he maintained that he was innocent of the charges against him. He was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009.[65]

In October 2015, Scottish prosecutors announced that they wanted to interview two Libyan nationals, whom they had identified as new suspects, over the bombing.[66]

On 21 December 2020, the 32nd anniversary of the disaster, the United States attorney general announced that Abu Agela Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a Libyan national in custody in Libya, had been charged with terrorism-related crimes in connection with the bombing, accusing him of involvement in constructing the bomb.[67]

On 11 December 2022, the United States advised they had Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi in custody.[68]

Trial, appeals, and release

Main article: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial

On 3 May 2000, the trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah began. Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder on 31 January 2001, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Scotland; his co-defendant, Fhimah, was found not guilty.[69]

The Lockerbie judgment stated:

From the evidence which we have discussed so far, we are satisfied that it has been proved that the primary suitcase containing the explosive device was dispatched from Malta, passed through Frankfurt, and was loaded onto PA103 at Heathrow. It is, as we have said, clear that with one exception, the clothing in the primary suitcase was the clothing purchased in Mr Gauci's shop on 7 December 1988. The purchaser was, on Mr Gauci's evidence, a Libyan. The trigger for the explosion was an MST-13 timer of the single solder mask variety. A substantial quantity of such timers had been supplied to Libya. We cannot say that it is impossible that the clothing might have been taken from Malta, united somewhere with a timer from some source other than Libya and introduced into the airline baggage system at Frankfurt or Heathrow. When, however, the evidence regarding the clothing, the purchaser, and the timer is taken with the evidence that an unaccompanied bag was taken from KM180 to PA103A, the inference that that was the primary suitcase becomes, in our view, irresistible. As we have also said, the absence of an explanation as to how the suitcase was taken into the system at Luqa is a major difficulty for the Crown case, but after taking full account of that difficulty, we remain of the view that the primary suitcase began its journey at Luqa. The clear inference which we draw from this evidence is that the conception, planning and execution of the plot which led to the planting of the explosive device was of Libyan origin. While no doubt organisations such as the PFLP-GC and the PPSF were also engaged in terrorist activities during the same period, we are satisfied that there was no evidence from which we could infer that they were involved in this particular act of terrorism, and the evidence relating to their activities does not create a reasonable doubt in our minds about the Libyan origin of this crime.[70]

Appeal

The defence team had 14 days in which to appeal against Megrahi's conviction, and an additional six weeks to submit the full grounds of the appeal. These were considered by a judge sitting in private who decided to grant Megrahi leave to appeal. The only basis for an appeal under Scots law is that a "miscarriage of justice" had occurred, which is not defined in statute, so the appeal court must determine the meaning of these words in each case.[71] Because three judges and one alternate judge had presided over the trial, five judges were required to preside over the Court of Criminal Appeal: Lord Cullen, Lord Justice-General, Lord Kirkwood, Lord Osborne, Lord Macfadyen, and Lord Nimmo Smith.

In what was described as a milestone in Scottish legal history, Lord Cullen granted the BBC permission in January 2002 to televise the appeal, and to broadcast it on the Internet in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation.

William Taylor QC, leading the defence, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the judge. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the defence claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, which the judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the prosecution's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. That evidence, which was not heard at the trial, showed that at some time in the two hours before 00:35 on 21 December 1988, a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access air side in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport, near to the area referred to at the trial as the "baggage build-up area". Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.[72]

On 14 March 2002, Lord Cullen took less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Judiciary. The five judges rejected the appeal, ruling unanimously that "none of the grounds of appeal was well-founded", adding "this brings proceedings to an end". The following day, a helicopter took Megrahi from Camp Zeist to continue his life sentence in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow.

SCCRC review

Megrahi's lawyers applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) on 23 September 2003 to have his case referred back to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a fresh appeal against conviction. The application to the SCCRC followed the publication of two reports in February 2001 and March 2002 by Hans Köchler, who had been an international observer at Camp Zeist, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Köchler described the decisions of the trial and appeal courts as a "spectacular miscarriage of justice".[73] Köchler also issued a series of statements in 2003, 2005, and 2007 calling for an independent international inquiry into the case and accusing the West of "double standards in criminal justice" in relation to the Lockerbie trial on the one hand and the HIV trial in Libya on the other.[74][75][76]

On 28 June 2007, the SCCRC announced its decision to refer Megrahi's case to the High Court for a second appeal against conviction.[77] The SCCRC's decision was based on facts set out in an 800-page report that determined that "a miscarriage of justice may have occurred".[78] Köchler criticised the SCCRC for exonerating police, prosecutors and forensic staff from blame in respect of Megrahi's alleged wrongful conviction. He told The Herald of 29 June 2007: "No officials to be blamed, simply a Maltese shopkeeper."[79] Köchler also highlighted the role of intelligence services in the trial and stated that proper judicial proceedings could not be conducted under conditions in which extrajudicial forces are allowed to intervene.[80]

Second appeal

A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court took place on 11 October 2007 when prosecution lawyers and Megrahi's defence counsel, Maggie Scott QC, discussed a number of legal issues with a panel of three judges.[81] One of the issues concerned a number of documents that were shown before the trial to the prosecution, but were not disclosed to the defence. The documents are understood to relate to the Mebo MST-13 timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb.[82] Maggie Scott also asked for documents relating to an alleged payment of $2 million made to Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, for his testimony at the trial, which led to the conviction of Megrahi.[83]

On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office, which sought to limit the scope of Megrahi's second appeal to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007.[84] In January 2009, it was reported that, although Megrahi's second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin in April 2009, the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined.[85] The second appeal began on 28 April 2009, lasted for one month and was adjourned in May 2009. On 7 July 2009, the court reassembled for a procedural hearing and was told that because of the illness of one of the judges, Lord Wheatley, who was recovering from heart surgery, the final two substantive appeal sessions would run from 2 November to 11 December 2009, and 12 January to 26 February 2010. Megrahi's lawyer Maggie Scott expressed dismay at the delays: "There is a very serious danger that my client will die before the case is determined."[86]

Compassionate release and controversy

Further information: Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

On 25 July 2009, Megrahi applied to be released from jail on compassionate grounds.[87] Three weeks later, on 12 August 2009, Megrahi applied to have his second appeal dropped and was granted compassionate release for his terminal prostate cancer.[88][89] On 20 August 2009, Megrahi was released from prison and travelled by chartered jet to Libya.[90][91][92] His survival beyond the approximate "three-month" prognosis generated some controversy. It is believed that, following his release, Al-Megrahi was prescribed abiraterone and prednisone, a combination that extends median survival by an average of 14.8 months. After hospital treatment ended, he returned to his family home. Following his release, Megrahi published evidence on the Internet that was gathered for the abandoned second appeal which he claimed would clear his name.[93]

Allegations have been made that the UK government and BP sought Al-Megrahi's release as part of a trade deal with Libya. In 2008, the UK government "decided to 'do all it could' to help the Libyans get Al-Megrahi home ... and explained the legal procedure for compassionate release to the Libyans."[94]

Megrahi was released on licence, so was obliged to remain in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council. On 26 August 2011, it was announced that the whereabouts of Al-Megrahi were unknown due to the social upheaval in Libya and that he had not been in contact for some time.[95] As reported on 29 August, he had been located and both the Scottish government and council issued a statement confirming that they had been in contact with his family and that his licence had not been breached. MP Andrew Mitchell said Al-Megrahi was comatose and near death. CNN reporter Nic Robertson said he was "just a shell of the man he once was" and was surviving on oxygen and an intravenous drip. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton called for Al-Megrahi to be extradited.

To me it will be a signal of how serious the rebel government is for good relations with the United States and the West if they hand over Megrahi for trial.

Mohammed al-Alagi, justice minister for the new leadership in Tripoli, said "the council would not allow any Libyan to be deported to face trial in another country ... Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has already been judged once, and will not be judged again."[96] Megrahi died of prostate cancer in Libya on 20 May 2012.[97] Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that people should use the occasion to remember the Lockerbie victims.[97]

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi

In 2020, US authorities indicted Libyan national, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, for participating in the bombing.[98] In December 2022, the United States government obtained custody of 71-year-old Mas'ud.[99][100]

According to The New York Times, Mas'ud was born in Tunisia in 1951, before he became a citizen of Libya as a child after he moved to Tripoli, Libya.[101] Beginning at the age of 22 in 1973, he began working with bombs for the Libyan intelligence service for the next 38 years. Shortly after finishing his longtime run at the job, Mas'ud was arrested and imprisoned in Misurata, Libya before being moved to Al-Hadba prison in Tripoli, which happened shortly after the fall of Colonel el-Qaddafi in 2011.[102]

After the United States government obtained custody of Mas'ud, heads of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Libyan Parliament, Talal al-Mihoub and Youssef al-Aqouri, demanded an urgent investigation into the extradition of Mas'ud, calling it a blatant violation of national sovereignty and an infringement of the rights of the Libyan citizen. They stressed that the case file had been completely closed politically and legally, according to the text of the agreement signed between the United States and Libya in 2003.[103]

Alleged motives

Libya

 
Gulf of Sidra

Until 2002, Libya had never formally admitted carrying out the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. On 16 August 2003, Libya formally admitted responsibility for Pan Am Flight 103 in a letter presented to the president of the United Nations Security Council. Felicity Barringer of The New York Times said that the letter had "general language that lacked any expression of remorse" for the people killed in the bombing.[104] The letter stated that it "accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials".[105]

The motive that is generally attributed to Libya can be traced back to a series of military confrontations with the US Navy that took place in the 1980s in the Gulf of Sidra, the whole of which Libya claimed as its territorial waters. First, there was the Gulf of Sidra incident (1981) when two Libyan fighter aircraft were shot down by two US Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters. Then, two Libyan radio ships were sunk in the Gulf of Sidra. Later, on 23 March 1986, a Libyan Navy patrol boat was sunk in the Gulf of Sidra,[106] followed by the sinking of another Libyan vessel on 25 March 1986.[107] The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was accused of retaliating for these sinkings by ordering the April 1986 bombing of La Belle, a West Berlin nightclub frequented by US military personnel, killing three people and injuring 230.[108]

The US National Security Agency's (NSA) alleged interception of an incriminatory message from Libya to its embassy in East Berlin provided US President Ronald Reagan with the justification for Operation El Dorado Canyon on 15 April 1986, with US Navy and US Marine Corps warplanes launching from three aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Sidra and US Air Force warplanes launching from two British bases[109][110]—the first US military strikes from Britain since World War II—against Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya. The Libyan government claimed the air strikes killed Hana Gaddafi, a daughter Gaddafi claimed he adopted (her reported age has varied between 15 months and seven years).[111] To avenge his daughter's supposed death (Hana or Hanna's actual fate remains disputed), Gaddafi is said to have sponsored the September 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan.[112]

In turn, the US encouraged the Chadian National Armed Forces (FANT) and it also aided them by supplying them with satellite intelligence during the Battle of Maaten al-Sarra. The attack resulted in a devastating defeat for Gaddafi's forces, following which he had to accede to a ceasefire ending the Chadian-Libyan conflict and his dreams of African dominance. Gaddafi blamed the defeat on French and US "aggression against Libya".[113] The result was Gaddafi's lingering animosity against the two countries which led to Libyan support for the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.[114]

Demands for independent inquiry

Prior to the abandonment of Megrahi's second appeal against conviction and while new evidence could be still tested in court, there had been few calls for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing. Demands for such an inquiry emerged later, and became more insistent. On 2 September 2009, former MEP Michael McGowan demanded that the UK government call for an urgent, independent inquiry led by the UN to find out the truth about Pan Am flight 103. "We owe it to the families of the victims of Lockerbie and the international community to identify those responsible," McGowan said.[115] Two online petitions were started: one calling for a UK public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing;[116] the other a UN inquiry into the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. In September 2009, a third petition which was addressed to the President of the United Nations General Assembly demanded that the UN should "institute a full public inquiry" into the Lockerbie disaster.[117] On 3 October 2009, Malta was asked to table a UN resolution supporting the petition, which was signed by 20 people including the families of the Lockerbie victims, authors, journalists, professors, politicians and parliamentarians, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The signatories considered that a UN inquiry could help remove "many of the deep misgivings which persist in lingering over this tragedy" and could also eliminate Malta from this terrorist act. Malta was brought into the case because the prosecution argued that the two accused Libyans, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, had placed the bomb on an Air Malta aircraft before it was transferred at Frankfurt airport to a feeder flight destined for London's Heathrow airport, from which Pan Am Flight 103 departed. The Maltese government responded saying that the demand for a UN inquiry was "an interesting development that would be deeply considered, although there were complex issues surrounding the event."[118]

On 24 August 2009, Lockerbie campaigner Dr Jim Swire wrote to Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, calling for a full inquiry, including the question of suppression of the Heathrow evidence. This was backed up by a delegation of Lockerbie relatives, led by Pamela Dix, who went to 10 Downing Street on 24 October 2009 and handed over a letter addressed to Gordon Brown calling for a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the need for a public inquiry and the main issues that it should address.[119] An op-ed article by Pamela Dix, subtitled "The families of those killed in the bombing have not given up hope of an inquiry to help us learn the lessons of this tragedy", was published in The Guardian on 26 October 2009.[120] On 1 November 2009, it was reported that Gordon Brown had ruled out a public inquiry into Lockerbie, saying in response to Dr Swire's letter: "I understand your desire to understand the events surrounding the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 but I do not think it would be appropriate for the UK government to open an inquiry of this sort." UK ministers explained that it was for the Scottish Government to decide if it wants to hold its own, more limited, inquiry into the worst terrorist attack on British soil. The Scottish Government had already rejected an independent inquiry, saying it lacks the constitutional power to examine the international dimensions of the case.[121]

Concluding his extensive reply dated 27 October 2009 to the Prime Minister, Dr Swire said:

You have now received a much more comprehensive letter requesting a full inquiry from our group 'UK Families-Flight 103'. I am one of the signatories. I hope that the contents of this letter underline some of the reasons as to why I cannot possibly accept that any inquiry should be limited to Scotland, and I apologise if my previous personal letter of 24 August misled you over the main focus that the inquiry will need to address. That focus lies in London and at the door of the then inhabitant of Number 10 Downing Street. I look forward to hearing your comments both to our group's letter and to the contents of this one.[122]

Claims of Gaddafi involvement

On 23 February 2011, amidst the Libyan Civil War, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, former Libyan Justice Minister (and later member and Chairman of the anti-Gaddafi National Transitional Council), alleged that he had evidence that Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, had personally ordered Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to bomb Pan Am Flight 103.[123][124]

In a July 2021 interview, Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said that his father "had stopped riding his horse after the humiliation of the American bombing of Tripoli in 1986 and resumed riding it after the Lockerbie bombing."[125]

Alternative theories

Main article: Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories

Based on a 1995 investigation by journalists Paul Foot and John Ashton, alternative explanations of the plot to commit the Lockerbie bombing were listed by The Guardian's Patrick Barkham in 1999.[126] Following the Lockerbie verdict in 2001 and the appeal in 2002, attempts have been made to re-open the case amid allegations that Libya was framed. One theory suggests the bomb on the plane was detonated by radio. Another theory suggests the CIA prevented the suitcase containing the bomb from being searched. Iran's involvement is alleged, either in association with a Palestine militant group, or in loading the bomb while the plane was at Heathrow. The US Defense Intelligence Agency alleges that Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur (Ayatollah Mohtashemi), a member of the Iranian government, paid US$10 million for the bombing:

Ayatollah Mohtashemi: (...) and was the one who paid the same amount to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the 310.[127]

Other theories implicate Libya and Abu Nidal, and apartheid South Africa.

French investigative journalist Pierre Péan accused Thomas Thurman, a Federal Bureau of Investigation explosives expert, of fabricating false evidence against Libya in both the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 sabotages.[128][129]

PCAST statement

On 29 September 1989, President Bush appointed Ann McLaughlin Korologos, former Secretary of Labor, to chair the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) to review and report on aviation security policy in the light of the sabotage of flight PA103. Oliver Revell, the FBI's Executive Assistant Director, was assigned to advise and assist PCAST in their task.[130]

Before they submitted their report, the PCAST members met a group of British PA103 relatives at the US embassy in London on 12 February 1990. One of the British relatives, Martin Cadman, alleges that a member of President Bush's staff told him: "Your government and ours know exactly what happened but they are never going to tell."[131] The statement first came to public attention in the 1994 documentary film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie and was published in both The Guardian of 12 November 1994, and a special report from Private Eye magazine entitled Lockerbie, the flight from justice May/June 2001.

Compensation

From Libya

On 29 May 2002, Libya offered up to US$2.7 billion to settle claims by the families of the 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing, representing US$10 million per family. The Libyan offer was that 40% of the money would be released when United Nations sanctions, suspended in 1999, were cancelled; another 40% when US trade sanctions were lifted; and the final 20% when the US State Department removed Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.[132]

Jim Kreindler of the New York law firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which orchestrated the settlement, said: "These are uncharted waters. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims." The US State Department maintained that it was not directly involved. "Some families want cash, others say it is blood money", said a State Department official.[132]

Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya. Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorism—which Libya said it had already made—and "accepting responsibility for the actions of its officials".[133][132]

On 15 August 2003, Libya's UN ambassador, Ahmed Own, submitted a letter to the UN Security Council formally accepting "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in relation to the Lockerbie bombing.[134] The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US$8 million (from which legal fees of about US$2.5 million were deducted) and, as a result, the UN cancelled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier, and US trade sanctions were lifted. A further US$2 million would have gone to each family had the US State Department removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism, but as this did not happen by the deadline set by Libya, the Libyan Central Bank withdrew the remaining US$540 million in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland through which the earlier US$2.16 billion compensation for the victims' families had been paid.[135] The United States announced resumption of full diplomatic relations with Libya after deciding to remove it from its list of countries that support terrorism on 15 May 2006.[136]

On 24 February 2004, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem stated in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his country had paid the compensation as the "price for peace" and to secure the lifting of sanctions. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said, "I agree with that." He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London. Gaddafi later retracted Ghanem's comments, under pressure from Washington and London.[137]

A civil action against Libya continued until 18 February 2005 on behalf of Pan Am and its insurers, which went bankrupt partly as a result of the attack. The airline was seeking $4.5 billion for the loss of the aircraft and the effect on the airline's business.[138]

In the wake of the SCCRC's June 2007 decision, there have been suggestions that, if Megrahi's second appeal had been successful and his conviction had been overturned, Libya could have sought to recover the $2.16 billion compensation paid to the relatives.[139] Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on 7 December 2007, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said that the seven Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims (US$33 billion in total), Saif Gaddafi replied: "I don't know".[140]

Following discussions in London in May 2008, US and Libyan officials agreed to start negotiations to resolve all outstanding bilateral compensation claims, including those relating to UTA Flight 772, the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing and Pan Am Flight 103.[141] On 14 August 2008, a US-Libya compensation deal was signed in Tripoli by US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch and Libya's Foreign Ministry head of America affairs, Ahmed al-Fatroui. The agreement covers 26 lawsuits filed by American citizens against Libya, and three by Libyan citizens in respect of the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 which killed at least 40 people and injured 220.[142] In October 2008 Libya paid $1.5 billion into a fund which will be used to compensate relatives of the

  1. Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20% of the sum agreed in 2003;
  2. American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;
  3. American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing; and,
  4. Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.

As a result, President Bush signed Executive Order 13477 restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said.[143] US State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, called the move a "laudable milestone ... clearing the way for a continued and expanding US-Libyan partnership."[144]

In an interview shown in BBC Two's The Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie[145] on 31 August 2008, Saif Gaddafi said that Libya had admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing simply to get trade sanctions removed. He went on to describe the families of the Lockerbie victims as very greedy: "They were asking for more money and more money and more money".[146] Several of the victims families refused to accept compensation due to their belief that Libya was not responsible.[147]

February 2011

In an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen on 23 February 2011, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, former Justice Secretary of Libya, claimed to have evidence that Gaddafi personally ordered Al-Megrahi to carry out the bombing.[123]

Quotes: "[Jalil] told Expressen Khadafy [sic] gave the order to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground on 21 December 1988. 'To hide it, he (Khadafy) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland,' Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying."[148]

Al Jalil's commentary to the Expressen came during widespread political unrest and protests in Libya calling for the removal of Ghaddafi from power. The protests were part of a massive wave of unprecedented uprisings across the Arab world in: Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt, where Egyptian protesters effectively forced the removal of long-term ruler, Hosni Mubarak, from office. Jalil's comments came on a day when Ghaddafi's defiance and refusal to leave his command prompted his brutal attacks on Libyan protesters.

Abdel-Jalil stepped down as minister of justice in protest over the violence against anti-government demonstrations.[148]

Contingency fees for lawyers

On 5 December 2003, Jim Kreindler revealed that his Park Avenue law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US$1 million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents. The firm's fees could exceed US$300 million eventually. Kreindler argued that the fees were justified, since "Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for, and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money."[135]

Another top legal firm in the US, Speiser Krause, which represented 60 relatives, of whom half were UK families, concluded contingency deals securing them fees of between 28 and 35% of individual settlements. Frank Granito of Speiser Krause noted that "the rewards in the US are more substantial than anywhere else in the world but nobody has questioned the fee whilst the work has been going on, it is only now as we approach a resolution when the criticism comes your way."[149]

In March 2009, it was announced that US lobbying firm, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, received fees of $2 million for the work it did from 2006 through 2008 helping the PA103 relatives obtain payment by Libya of the final $2 million compensation (out of a total of $10 million) that was due to each family.[150]

From Pan Am

In 1992, a US federal court found Pan Am guilty of willful misconduct due to lax security screening caused by not implementing baggage reconciliation, a new security program mandated by the FAA prior to the incident, which requires unaccompanied luggage to be searched by hand and to ensure passengers board flights onto which they have checked baggage; Pan Am relied more on the less-effective method of x-ray screening. Two of Pan Am's subsidiaries, Alert Management Inc., which handles Pan Am's security at foreign airports, and Pan American World Services, were also found guilty.[151]

Memorials and tributes

 
Lockerbie Cairn in Arlington National Cemetery, U.S.
 
Inscription on memorial at Arlington National Cemetery

There are several private and public memorials to the PA103 victims. Dark Elegy is the work of sculptor Suse Lowenstein of Long Island, whose son Alexander, then 21, was a passenger on the flight. The work consists of 43 nude statues of the wives and mothers who lost a husband or a child. Inside each sculpture there is a personal memento of the victim.[152]

United States

 
Syracuse University's memorial in Syracuse, New York

On 3 November 1995, then-US President Bill Clinton dedicated a Memorial Cairn to the victims at Arlington National Cemetery,[153] and there are similar memorials at Syracuse University; Dryfesdale Cemetery, near Lockerbie; and in Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie.[154]

Syracuse University holds a memorial week every year called "Remembrance Week" to commemorate its 35 lost students. Every 21 December, a service is held in the university's chapel at 14:03 (19:03 UTC), marking the moment the bomb on board the aircraft was detonated.[155] The university also awards university tuition fees to two students from Lockerbie Academy each year, in the form of its Lockerbie scholarship. In addition, the university annually awards 35 scholarships to seniors to honour each of the 35 students killed.[156][157] The "Remembrance Scholarships" are among the highest honors a Syracuse undergraduate can receive. SUNY Oswego also gives out scholarships in memorial of Colleen Brunner to a student who is studying abroad.[158] A memorial plaque and garden in memory of its two students lost in the bombing is set in the University of Rochester's Eastman Quadrangle.[159]

 
Memorial Plaque in Honor of Eric Coker and Katharine Hollister, Eastman Quadrangle, University of Rochester

At Cornell University funds from the Libyan payment were used to establish a memorial professorship in honor of student Kenneth J. Bissett.[160]

The Women of Lockerbie

The Women of Lockerbie (2003) is a play written by Deborah Brevoort which depicts a woman from New Jersey roaming the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland. This mother tragically lost her son in the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103. While in Lockerbie, 7 years after the flight, she meets the women who witnessed and were affected by the crash itself while she attempts to find closure.[161] This play has received the Silver Medal from the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award.[162]

Lockerbie

 
Memorial at Dryfesdale Cemetery

The main UK memorial is at Dryfesdale Cemetery about one mile (1.5 kilometres) west of Lockerbie. There is a semicircular stone wall in the garden of remembrance with the names and nationalities of all the victims along with individual funeral stones and memorials. Inside the chapel at Dryfesdale there is a book of remembrance. There are memorials in Lockerbie and Moffat Roman Catholic churches, where plaques list the names of all 270 victims. In Lockerbie Town Hall Council Chambers, there is a stained-glass window depicting flags of the 21 countries whose citizens lost their lives in the disaster. There is also a book of remembrance at Lockerbie public library and another at Tundergarth Church.[163][164] In Sherwood Crescent there is a garden of remembrance to the seven Lockerbie residents killed when the aircraft's main wreckage fell there, destroying their homes.[165]

Wreckage of the aircraft

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch reassembled a large part of the fuselage to aid with the investigation; this has been retained as evidence and stored in a hangar at Farnborough Airport since the bombing.

As of 2008, the remaining wreckage of the aircraft was stored about a mile from Tattershall, Lincolnshire, at Roger Windley's scrapyard (53°7′19.35″N 0°12′58.09″W / 53.1220417°N 0.2161361°W / 53.1220417; -0.2161361 (Windley's Scrapyard)), pending the conclusion of the American victims' civil case and further legal proceedings.[166] The remains include the nose section of the Boeing 747, which was cut into several pieces to assist in removal from Tundergarth Hill.[167]

It was announced in April 2013 that part of the wreckage was transferred to a secure location in Dumfries, Scotland, and that it remains evidence in the ongoing criminal investigation.[168]

In popular culture

The events of Flight 103 were featured in "Lockerbie Disaster", a Season 7 (2009) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the US and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world).[169] It is also featured in a documentary film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie.

The bombing is also compared with the death of actor Brandon Lee on the track “Gold” off of hip-hop artist GZA’s 1995 album Liquid Swords, in the lyric, "Snake got smoked on the set like Brandon Lee, blown out the frame like Pan Am Flight 103."[citation needed] The book The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein was published about his brother who died in the crash.

See also

References

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Further reading

  • U.S. Policy in the Aftermath of the Bombing of Pan Am 103 (PDF). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994.
  • Emerson, Steven; Duffy, Brian (1990). The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation. ISBN 0-399-13521-9.
  • Cox, Matthew; Foster, Tom (1992). Their Darkest Day: The Tragedy of Pan Am 103. ISBN 0-8021-1382-6.
  • Johnston, David (1989). Lockerbie: The True Story.[ISBN missing]
  • Goddard, Donald; Coleman, Lester (1993). Trail of the Octopus. ISBN 0-451-18184-0.
  • Ashton, John; Ferguson, Ian (2001). Cover-up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie. ISBN 1-84018-389-6.
  • Ashton, John (2012). Megrahi: You Are My Jury. ISBN 978-1780270159.
  • Bannon, Kevin (2020). How Abdelbaset al-Megrahi became convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing. ISBN 978-1786236661.
  • Kerr, Morag (2013). Adequately Explained by Stupidity?. ISBN 978-1783062508.
  • Brown, David A. (9 January 1989). "Investigators Expand Search for Debris From Bombed 747". Aviation Week and Space Technology. 130 (25): 26–27.
  • Shifrin, Carole A. (7 September 1990). "British Issue Report on Flight 103, Urge Study on Reducing Effects of Explosions". Aviation Week and Space Technology. 133 (12): 128–129.
  • Cowell, Alan (29 June 2007). "Scottish Panel Challenges Lockerbie Conviction". New York Times. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
  • , 13 November 1991. Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • The U.S. indictment against Megrahi and Fhimah 8 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine, 13 November 1991. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • The Scottish judges 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • The verdict against Megrahi and Fhimah 18 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine, issued 31 January 2001. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • "No:2/9 – Boeing 747-121, N739PA, at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland", Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report. Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • , AAIB report, Appendix F (pdf). Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • , AAIB report, Appendix G (pdf). Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • Aviation Safety Network summary report. Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • Graphic of how the aircraft was destroyed, Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • . Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • The judgment in Megrahi's appeal 6 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, 14 March 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • United Nations Security Council Resolution 731 (1992) 20 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine, 21 January 1992. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • United Nations Security Council Resolution 748 (1992) 9 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine, 21 January 1992. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • United Nations Security Council Resolution 883 (1993) 13 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine, 11 November 1993. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • In-depth pages on the trial, BBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • "Lessons from Lockerbie, ten years later", BBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • The Lockerbie Trial. Retrieved 29 December 2008
  • Rowan, Roy (27 April 1992). . Time. Archived from the original on 13 February 2006. Retrieved 25 February 2005.
  • , a collection of stories about the bombing from Time Magazine. Retrieved 25 February 2005
  • "Lockerbie appeal hears key witness", BBC News, 13 February 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • "Lockerbie bomber loses appeal", BBC News, 14 March 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • , by Lucy Adams, The Herald, 25 February 2005. Retrieved 26 February 2005
  • , not recently updated. Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • , CNN, 23 August 2002. Retrieved 27 February 2005
  • "Court told how jet's radar blip broke up at 7.02 pm" by Ian Black and Gerard Seenan, 4 May 2000, The Guardian. Retrieved 28 February 2005
  • Cassell, Andrew (21 December 1998). "Lockerbie, 10 years on: Reporter's reflections". BBC News. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  • Rizzo, Patrick (29 May 2002). . The Namibian. Archived from the original on 4 January 2006.
  • Kirkup, James (11 April 2005). "The Scotsman". Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 6 July 2009.
  • Duffy, Brian (18 November 1989). "On the trail of terror". U.S. News & World Report.
  • "Flight 103," ABC News Prime Time Live, 30 November 1989
  • Doyle, Leonard (19 December 1990). "Lockerbie bomb bore 'Libyan signature". The Independent. UK.
  • "Unwitting Accomplices?". Barron's. 17 December 1989.
  • "Timer admission in Lockerbie trial" by Gerard Seenan, 21 June 2000
  • Mr. Waldegrave, in The United Kingdom Parliament, 19 April 1990. Retrieved 16 June 2005
  • Thatcher, Margaret (1993). The Downing Street Years. ISBN 9780060170561.
  • Koechler, H., and Jason Subler (eds.), The Lockerbie Trial. Documents Related to the I.P.O. Observer Mission. Studies in International Relations, Vol. XXVII. Vienna: International Progress Organization, 2002, ISBN 3-900704-21-X.
  • "Scottish Court in the Netherlands 2000–2002", Web site documenting the observer mission of Dr. Hans Koechler, appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as international observer at the Lockerbie trial, regularly updated, International Progress Organization. Retrieved 2005
  • Cohen, Dan and Susan (2000). Pan Am 103: the Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. ISBN 0-451-20270-8.
  • Dornstein, Ken (2006). The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. ISBN 0-375-50359-5.
  • Leppard, David (1992). On the Trail of Terror.
  • Marquise, Richard A. (2006). Scotbom: Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation. ISBN 978-0-87586-449-5.
  • (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. 15 May 1990. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2004.
  • Kreindler, James P., The Lockerbie Case and its Implications for State-Sponsored Terrorism, in: Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2007)
  • Haldane, Jill S., An' then the world came tae oor doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories (The Grimsay Press, 2008). [4]
  • News.bbc.co.uk. "Lockerbie pair 'could have survived'

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pan Am Flight 103.
External image
  airliners.net's Photo gallery
  • Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives at Syracuse University
  • Air Accident Investigation Branch:
    • Aircraft Accident Report 2/1990 – Report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA, at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988."
    • 2/1990 Aircraft Accident Report 2/1990, Appendices A–G
  • BBC-online interview with Jaswant Basuta
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • (response to a FOIA, 11 MB PDF) (Archive)
  • "It Happened in... Lockerbie – 20 August 09 – Part 1". Al Jazeera. 20 August 2009. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  • International observer mission of the president of the International Progress Organization, Dr. Hans Koechler, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands ("Lockerbie Court")
  • Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, Inc.

May 04, 2023
flight, flight, redirects, here, other, uses, flight, disambiguation, pa103, pan103, regularly, scheduled, transatlantic, flight, from, frankfurt, detroit, stopover, london, another, york, city, transatlantic, route, operated, clipper, maid, seas, boeing, regi. Flight 103 redirects here For other uses see Flight 103 disambiguation Pan Am Flight 103 PA103 PAN103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas a Boeing 747 121 registered N739PA Shortly after 19 00 on 21 December 1988 while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing 1 Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie killing 11 residents With a total of 270 fatalities it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom as well as its deadliest aviation disaster ever 2 Pan Am Flight 103Lockerbie bombingThe remains of the forward section from Clipper Maid of the Seas on Tundergarth HillBombingDate21 December 1988 1988 12 21 34 years 4 months agoSummaryIn flight breakup due to terrorist bombingSiteLockerbie Dumfries and Galloway Scotland 55 06 56 N 003 21 31 W 55 11556 N 3 35861 W 55 11556 3 35861 Coordinates 55 06 56 N 003 21 31 W 55 11556 N 3 35861 W 55 11556 3 35861Total fatalities270AircraftAircraft typeBoeing 747 121Aircraft nameClipper Maid of the SeasOperatorPan American World AirwaysIATA flight No PA103ICAO flight No PAA103Call signCLIPPER 103RegistrationN739PAFlight originFrankfurt Airport Frankfurt West Germany now Germany 1st stopoverHeathrow Airport London United Kingdom2nd stopoverJohn F Kennedy International Airport New York City New York United StatesDestinationDetroit Metropolitan Airport Michigan United StatesOccupants259Passengers243Crew16Fatalities259Survivors0Ground casualtiesGround fatalities11Following a three year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991 In 1999 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist the Netherlands after protracted negotiations and UN sanctions In 2001 Abdelbaset al Megrahi a Libyan intelligence officer was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing In August 2009 he was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer He died in May 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack In 2003 Gaddafi accepted Libya s responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims although he maintained that he had never given the order for the attack 3 Acceptance of responsibility was part of a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution for sanctions against Libya to be lifted Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi s status as a government employee 4 During the First Libyan Civil War in 2011 former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil claimed that the Libyan leader had personally ordered the bombing 3 while investigators have long believed that Megrahi did not act alone and have been reported as questioning retired Stasi agents about a possible role in the attack Some relatives of the dead including Lockerbie campaigner Jim Swire believe the bomb was planted at Heathrow Airport and not sent via feeder flights from Malta as per the US and UK governments A sleeper cell belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command had been operating in West Germany in the months before the Pan Am bombing 5 In 2020 US authorities indicted the Tunisia resident and Libyan national Abu Agila Mohammad Mas ud Kheir Al Marimi who was 37 years old at the time of the incident 6 for participating in the bombing He was taken into custody in December 2022 7 Contents 1 Aircraft 2 Flight 3 Explosion and collision timeline 3 1 Departure 3 2 Loss of contact 3 3 Disintegration of aircraft 3 4 Fuselage impact 4 Victims 4 1 Crew 4 2 Passengers 4 2 1 Syracuse University students 4 2 2 Notable passengers 4 2 3 US government officials 4 3 Lockerbie residents 5 Prior alerts 5 1 Helsinki warning 5 2 PLO s warning 6 Claims of responsibility 7 Investigation 7 1 Civil investigation 7 1 1 Crash site 7 1 2 Witnesses 7 2 Criminal inquiry 8 Trial appeals and release 8 1 Appeal 8 2 SCCRC review 8 3 Second appeal 8 4 Compassionate release and controversy 9 Abu Agila Mohammad Mas ud Kheir Al Marimi 10 Alleged motives 10 1 Libya 10 2 Demands for independent inquiry 10 3 Claims of Gaddafi involvement 10 4 Alternative theories 10 5 PCAST statement 11 Compensation 11 1 From Libya 11 1 1 February 2011 11 1 2 Contingency fees for lawyers 11 2 From Pan Am 12 Memorials and tributes 12 1 United States 12 1 1 The Women of Lockerbie 12 2 Lockerbie 13 Wreckage of the aircraft 14 In popular culture 15 See also 16 References 17 Further reading 18 External linksAircraft Edit N739PA as Clipper Morning Light at San Francisco International Airport in 1978 N739PA as Clipper Maid of the Seas at Los Angeles International Airport in 1987 wearing an older livery The explosion occurred almost directly under the second A in Pan Am on this side of the fuselage in the forward cargo hold The aircraft operating Pan Am Flight 103 was a Boeing 747 121 registered N739PA 8 and named Clipper Maid of the Seas 9 prior to 1979 it had been named Clipper Morning Light 10 It was the 15th 747 built and was delivered in February 1970 11 12 one month after the first 747 entered service with Pan Am 11 13 In 1978 as Clipper Morning Light it had appeared in Conquering the Atlantic the fourth episode of the BBC Television documentary series Diamonds in the Sky presented by Julian Pettifer 14 Flight EditPan Am 103 originated as a feeder flight at Frankfurt Airport West Germany using a Boeing 727 and the flight number PA103 A Both Pan Am and TWA routinely changed the type of aircraft operating different legs of a flight PA103 was bookable as either a single Frankfurt New York or a Frankfurt Detroit itinerary though a scheduled change of aircraft took place in London s Heathrow Airport After the bombing the flight number was changed in accordance with standard practice among airlines after disasters Within days the Frankfurt London New York Detroit route was being served by Pan Am Flight 3 until the company s demise in 1991 15 Explosion and collision timeline EditDeparture Edit On its arrival at Heathrow Terminal 3 on the day of the disaster the passengers and their luggage as well as an unaccompanied suitcase which was part of the interline luggage on the feeder flight were transferred directly to Clipper Maid of the Seas whose previous flight had originated in Los Angeles and arrived via San Francisco The plane which operated the flight s transatlantic leg pushed back from the terminal at 18 04 and took off from runway 27R at 18 25 bound for New York JFK Airport and then Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Contrary to many popular accounts of the disaster though repeated with reference below the flight which had a scheduled gate departure time of 18 00 left Heathrow airport on time 16 17 Loss of contact Edit At 18 58 the aircraft established two way radio contact with Shanwick Oceanic Area Control in Prestwick on 123 95 MHz Clipper Maid of the Seas approached the corner of the Solway Firth at 19 01 and crossed the coast at 19 02 UTC On scope the aircraft showed transponder code or squawk 0357 and flight level 310 At this point the Clipper Maid of the Seas was flying at 31 000 feet 9 400 m on a heading of 316 magnetic and at a speed of 313 kn 580 km h 360 mph calibrated airspeed Subsequent analysis of the radar returns by RSRE concluded that the aircraft was tracking 321 grid and travelling at a ground speed of 803 km h 499 mph 434 kn citation needed At 19 02 44 Alan Topp the clearance delivery officer at Shanwick transmitted its oceanic route clearance The aircraft did not acknowledge this message Clipper Maid of the Seas squawk then flickered off Air traffic control tried to make contact with the flight with no response Then a loud noise was recorded on the cockpit voice recorder CVR at 19 02 50 Five radar echoes fanning out appeared instead of one 18 19 Comparison of the CVR to the radar returns showed that eight seconds after the explosion the wreckage had a 1 nautical mile 1 9 km spread 20 A British Airways pilot flying the London Glasgow shuttle near Carlisle called Scottish authorities to report that he could see a huge fire on the ground 21 Disintegration of aircraft Edit Air Accident Investigation Branch model showing fuselage and tail fracture lines and ground locations of parts Green southern wreckage trail red northern wreckage trail grey impact crater yellow Rosebank Lockerbie white not recovered identified 20 15 19 The explosion punched a 50 cm 20 in hole on the left side of the fuselage Investigators from the US Federal Aviation Administration FAA concluded that no emergency procedures had been started in the cockpit 22 The CVR located in the tail section of the aircraft was found in a field by police searchers within 24 hours No distress call was recorded a 180 millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft s communications center 23 The explosion in the aircraft hold was magnified by the uncontrolled decompression of the fuselage a large difference in pressure between the aircraft s interior and exterior The aircraft s elevator and rudder control cables had been disrupted and the fuselage pitched downwards and to the left 24 Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the British Department for Transport concluded that the nose of the aircraft was blown off and separated from the main fuselage within three seconds of the explosion The nose cone was briefly held on by a band of metal but facing aft like the lid of a can It then sheared off up and backwards to starboard striking off the number three engine and landing some distance outside the town on a hill in Tundergarth Fuselage impact Edit The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19 000 ft 5 800 m when its dive became nearly vertical 20 44 Due to the extreme flutter the vertical stabilizer disintegrated which in turn produced large yawing movements As the forward fuselage continued to disintegrate the flying debris tore off both of the horizontal stabilizers while the rear fuselage the remaining three engines and the fin torque box separated 22 The rear fuselage parts of the baggage hold and three landing gear units landed at Rosebank Crescent 20 44 The fuselage consisting of the main wing box structure landed in Sherwood Crescent destroying three homes and creating a large impact crater The 200 000 lb 91 000 kg of jet fuel ignited by the impact started fires which destroyed several additional houses 20 4 Investigators determined that both wings had landed in the Sherwood Crescent crater saying the total absence of debris from the wing primary structure found remote from the crater confirmed the initial impression that the complete wing box structure had been present at the main impact 20 16 The British Geological Survey 23 kilometres 14 mi away at Eskdalemuir registered a seismic event at 19 03 36 measuring 1 6 on the moment magnitude scale which was attributed to the impact According to the report the rest of the wreckage composed of the complete fuselage forward of approximately station 480 to station 380 and incorporating the flight deck and nose landing gear was found as one piece in a field approximately 4 kilometres 2 5 mi east of Lockerbie 20 16 This field located opposite Tundergarth Church is where the wreckage most easily identified with images of the accident in the media fell having fallen almost flat on its left side but with a slight nose down attitude 20 16 Victims EditNationality Passengers Crew Ground Total Argentina 2 2 Belgium 1 1 Bolivia 1 1 Canada 3 3 France 2 1 3 West Germany 3 1 4 Hungary 4 4 India 3 3 Ireland 3 3 Israel 1 1 Italy 2 2 Jamaica 1 1 Japan 1 1 Philippines 1 1 South Africa 1 1 Spain 1 1 Sweden 2 1 3 Switzerland 1 1 Trinidad and Tobago 1 1 United Kingdom 31 1 11 43 United States 179 11 190Total 243 16 11 270All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed as were 11 residents of Lockerbie on the ground Of the 270 total fatalities 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens Nineteen other nationalities were represented with four or fewer passengers per country 9 25 Crew Edit Flight 103 was under the command of Captain James B MacQuarrie 55 a Pan Am pilot since 1964 with almost 11 000 flight hours of which over 4 000 had been accrued in 747 aircraft He previously served three years in the U S Navy and five years in the Massachusetts Air National Guard where he held the rank of major First Officer Raymond R Wagner 52 a pilot with Pan Am since 1966 with almost 5 500 hours in the 747 and a total of nearly 12 000 hours had previously served eight years in the New Jersey National Guard Flight Engineer Jerry D Avritt 46 who joined Pan Am in 1980 after 13 years with National Airlines had more than 8 000 hours of flying time with nearly 500 hours in the 747 The cockpit crew was based at JFK 20 Six of the 13 cabin crew members became naturalized US citizens while working for Pan Am The cabin crew was based at Heathrow and lived in the London area or commuted from around Europe All were originally hired by Pan Am and seniority ranged from 9 months to 28 years The captain first officer flight engineer a flight attendant and several first class passengers were found still strapped to their seats inside the nose section when it crashed in Tundergarth A flight attendant was found alive by a farmer s wife but died before help could be summoned Some passengers may have remained alive briefly after impact a pathologist s report concluded that at least two of these passengers might have survived if they had been found soon enough 26 19 27 Passengers Edit Syracuse University students Edit Thirty five of the passengers were students from Syracuse University who participated in the university s Division of International Programs Abroad abbreviated as DIPA Program and renamed to Syracuse University Abroad in 2006 while also known as Syracuse Abroad and Study Abroad Program and were returning home for Christmas following a semester in Syracuse s London and European campuses Ten of these students were from other universities and colleges including but not limited to Colgate University and University of Colorado with collaborative relationships with Syracuse Many of their bodies were found at Rosebank Crescent 1 2 mi 0 8 km from Sherwood Crescent The rear fuselage of the plane where many of them sat destroyed one of the houses of Rosebank Crescent 71 Park Place the home of Lockerbie resident Ella Ramsden who survived The bodies of two of these students were never recovered citation needed Notable passengers Edit Dryfesdale Cemetery memorial stone dedicated to Bernt Carlsson Prominent among the passenger victims was the 50 year old UN Commissioner for Namibia then South West Africa Bernt Carlsson who would have attended the signing ceremony of the New York Accords at the UN headquarters the following day 28 James Fuller an American automotive executive who worked for Volkswagen was returning home from a meeting with Volkswagen executives in Germany Also aboard was Irish Olympic sailor Peter Dix 29 and rock musician Paul Jeffreys and his wife 30 31 US government officials Edit Aboard the flight were U S Department of State Diplomatic Security Service DSS Special Agents Daniel Emmett O Connor and Ronald Albert Lariviere 32 33 Matthew Gannon the Central Intelligence Agency s deputy station chief in Beirut Lebanon was sitting in seat 14J which is located in the business class branded as Clipper Class cabin 34 A group of US intelligence specialists was on board the flight Their presence gave rise to speculations and conspiracy theories that one or more of them had been targeted 35 Lockerbie residents Edit Eleven Lockerbie residents on Sherwood Crescent were killed when the wing section hit the house at 13 Sherwood Crescent at more than 800 km h 500 mph and exploded creating a crater 47 m 154 ft long and with a volume of 560 m3 730 cu yd 20 The property was completely destroyed and its two occupants were killed Their bodies were never found Several other houses and their foundations were destroyed and 21 others were damaged beyond repair A family of four was killed when their house at 15 Sherwood Crescent exploded 36 A couple and their daughter were killed by the explosion in their house at 16 Sherwood Crescent Their son witnessed a fireball engulfing his home from a neighbour s garage where he had been repairing his sister s bicycle 37 The other Lockerbie residents who died were two widows aged 82 and 81 who also both lived in Sherwood Crescent they were the two oldest victims of the disaster 38 The bodies of both 15 Sherwood Crescent children and both 16 Sherwood Crescent parents were never recovered citation needed Patrick Keegans Lockerbie s Roman Catholic priest was preparing to visit friends around 7 00 that evening with his mother having recently been appointed a parish priest of the town 39 Keegans house at 1 Sherwood Crescent was the only one on the street that was not either destroyed by the impact or gutted by fire 40 According to a BBC article on the fire published in 2018 Keegans had gone upstairs to make sure that he had hidden his mother s Christmas present and recalls Immediately after that there was an enormous explosion The same source claims that following this the shaking stopped and to his surprise he was uninjured Keegans mother was also unharmed having been shielded from debris by a refrigerator freezer 39 Many of the passengers relatives most of them from the US arrived there within days to identify the dead Volunteers from Lockerbie set up and staffed canteens which stayed open 24 hours a day and offered relatives soldiers police officers and social workers free sandwiches hot meals beverages and counseling The people of the town washed dried and ironed every piece of clothing that was found once the police had determined they were of no forensic value so that as many items as possible could be returned to the relatives The BBC s Scotland correspondent Andrew Cassell reported on the 10th anniversary of the bombing that the townspeople had opened their homes and hearts to the relatives bearing their own losses stoically and with enormous dignity and that the bonds forged then continue to this day 41 Prior alerts EditTwo alerts were released shortly before the bombing Helsinki warning Edit On 5 December 1988 16 days prior to the attack the US Federal Aviation Administration FAA issued a security bulletin saying that on that day a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the US Embassy in Helsinki Finland and told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization he said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier 42 The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the US government and the State Department cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies The FAA sent it to all US carriers including Pan Am which had charged each of the passengers a 5 security surcharge promising a program that will screen passengers employees airport facilities baggage and aircraft with unrelenting thoroughness 43 the security team in Frankfurt found the warning under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing 19 One of the Frankfurt security screeners whose job was to spot explosive devices under X ray told ABC News that she had first learned what Semtex a plastic explosive was during her ABC interview 11 months after the bombing 44 On 13 December the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the US Embassy in Moscow and eventually distributed to the entire American community there including journalists and businessmen 45 PLO s warning Edit Just days before the bombing security forces in European countries including the UK were put on alert after a warning from the Palestine Liberation Organization PLO that extremists might launch terrorist attacks to undermine the then ongoing dialogue between the United States and the PLO 46 Claims of responsibility Edit CIA analysis of various claims of responsibility for the bombing On the day of the bombing the French Directorate General for External Security was informed by their British counterpart that the UK suspected the Libyans to be behind the bombing 47 According to a CIA analysis dated 22 December 1988 several groups were quick to claim responsibility in telephone calls in the United States and Europe A male caller claimed that a group called the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution had destroyed the plane in retaliation for Iran Air Flight 655 being shot down by US forces in the Persian Gulf the previous July A caller claiming to represent the Islamic Jihad Organization told ABC News in New York that the group had planted the bomb to commemorate Christmas Another caller claimed the plane had been downed by Mossad the Israeli intelligence service 48 49 The list s author noted We consider the claims from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as the most credible one received so far but the analysis concluded We cannot assign responsibility for this tragedy to any terrorist group at this time We anticipate that as often happens many groups will seek to claim credit 48 49 Muammar Gaddafi took responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the victims families in 2003 though he maintained that he had not ordered the attack 3 On 22 February 2011 during the Libyan Civil War former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil stated in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Expressen that Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing 50 Jalil claimed to possess documents that prove his allegations and that he is ready to hand them over to the international criminal court 51 In December 2013 the original prime suspects in the bombing were revealed to have been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command PFLP GC a Syria based group led by Ahmed Jibril A flood of warnings immediately preceding the disaster had included one that read team of Palestinians not associated with PLO intends to attack US targets in Europe Time frame is present Targets specified are Pan Am Airlines and US military bases Five weeks before this warning Jibril s right hand man Haffez Dalkamoni had been arrested in Frankfurt with a known bomb maker Marwen Khreesat Later US intelligence officials confirmed that members of the group had been monitoring Pan Am s facilities at Frankfurt airport On Dalkamoni s account bombs made by Khreesat were at large somewhere 52 A deep cover CIA agent was told by up to 15 high level Syrian officials that the PFLP GC was involved and that officials interacted with Jibril on a constant basis 53 In 2014 an Iranian ex spy asserted that Iran ordered the attack 54 The Iranian foreign ministry swiftly denied any involvement 55 Investigation EditMain article Pan Am Flight 103 bombing investigation Civil investigation Edit Crash site Edit Cassette player similar to the one used in the disaster The initial investigation into the crash site by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary involved many helicopter surveys satellite imaging and a search of the area by police and soldiers The wreckage of the crash was scattered over 2 000 square kilometers 770 sq mi and AAIB investigators were confronted by a massive jigsaw puzzle in trying to piece the plane back together In total 4 million pieces of wreckage were collected and registered on computer files More than 10 000 pieces of debris were retrieved tagged and entered into a computer tracking system The perpetrators had apparently intended the plane to crash into the sea destroying any traceable evidence but its explosion over land left a trail of evidence 56 The fuselage of the aircraft was reconstructed by air accident investigators revealing a 20 inch 510 mm hole consistent with an explosion in the forward cargo hold Examination of the baggage containers revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening pitting and severe damage indicating a high energy event had taken place inside it A series of test explosions was carried out to confirm the precise location and quantity of explosive used Fragments of a Samsonite suitcase believed to have contained the bomb were recovered together with parts and pieces of circuit board identified as components of a Toshiba Bombeat RT SF16 radio cassette player similar to that used to conceal a Semtex bomb seized by West German police from the Palestinian militant group PLO GC two months earlier Items of baby clothing which were subsequently proven to have been made in Malta were thought to have come from the same suitcase Witnesses Edit The clothes were traced to a Maltese merchant Tony Gauci who became a key prosecution witness testifying that he sold the clothes to a man of Libyan appearance Gauci was interviewed 23 times giving contradictory evidence about who had bought the clothes that person s age and appearance and the date of purchase but later identified Abdelbaset al Megrahi As Megrahi had only been in Malta on 7 December that date was assumed to be the purchase date This date is in doubt as Gauci had testified that Malta s Christmas lights had not been on when the clothes had been purchased the lights were later found to have been switched on on 6 December Scottish police had also failed to inform the defence that another witness had testified seeing Libyan men making a similar purchase on a different day 57 An official report providing information not made available to the defence during the original trial stated that on 19 April 1999 four days before identifying al Megrahi for the first time Gauci had seen a picture of al Megrahi in a magazine that connected him to the bombing a fact that could have distorted his judgement 58 Gauci was shown the same magazine during his testimony at al Megrahi s trial and asked if he had identified the photograph in April 1999 as being the person who purchased the clothing he was then asked if that person was in the court Gauci then identified al Megrahi for the court stating He is the man on this side He resembles him a lot 59 A circuit board fragment allegedly found embedded in a piece of charred material was identified as part of an electronic timer similar to one found on a Libyan intelligence agent who had been arrested 10 months previously for carrying materials for a Semtex bomb The timer was allegedly traced through its Swiss manufacturer Mebo to the Libyan military and Mebo employee Ulrich Lumpert identified the fragment at al Megrahi s trial Mebo s owner Edwin Bollier testified at the trial that the Scottish police had originally shown him a fragment of a brown eight ply circuit board from a prototype timer which had never been supplied to Libya Yet the sample he was asked to identify at the trial was a green 9 ply circuit board that Mebo had indeed supplied to Libya Bollier wanted to pursue this discrepancy but was told by trial judge Lord Sutherland that he could not do so 60 Bollier claimed that in 1991 he had declined an offer of 4 million from the FBI equivalent to 7 2 million in 2021 dollars in exchange for his support of the main line of inquiry though this claim has never been verified 61 Criminal inquiry Edit Known as the Lockerbie bombing and the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK it was described by Scotland s Lord Advocate as the UK s largest criminal inquiry led by the smallest police force in Britain Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary 62 After a three year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US FBI during which 15 000 witness statements were taken indictments for murder were issued on 13 November 1991 against Abdelbaset al Megrahi a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines LAA and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport Malta UN sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on 5 April 1999 to Scottish police at Camp Zeist the Netherlands which was selected as a neutral venue for their trial Both of the accused chose not to give evidence in court On 31 January 2001 Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges and sentenced to life imprisonment but Fhimah was acquitted Megrahi s appeal against his conviction was refused on 14 March 2002 and his application to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003 On 23 September 2003 Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission SCCRC for his conviction to be reviewed and on 28 June 2007 the SCCRC announced its decision to refer the case to the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh after it found he may have suffered a miscarriage of justice 63 Megrahi served just over 10 years of his sentence beginning 5 April 1999 64 first in Barlinnie prison Glasgow and later in Greenock prison Renfrewshire throughout which time he maintained that he was innocent of the charges against him He was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009 65 In October 2015 Scottish prosecutors announced that they wanted to interview two Libyan nationals whom they had identified as new suspects over the bombing 66 On 21 December 2020 the 32nd anniversary of the disaster the United States attorney general announced that Abu Agela Mas ud Kheir Al Marimi a Libyan national in custody in Libya had been charged with terrorism related crimes in connection with the bombing accusing him of involvement in constructing the bomb 67 On 11 December 2022 the United States advised they had Abu Agila Mohammad Mas ud Kheir Al Marimi in custody 68 Trial appeals and release EditMain article Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial On 3 May 2000 the trial of Abdelbaset al Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah began Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder on 31 January 2001 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Scotland his co defendant Fhimah was found not guilty 69 The Lockerbie judgment stated From the evidence which we have discussed so far we are satisfied that it has been proved that the primary suitcase containing the explosive device was dispatched from Malta passed through Frankfurt and was loaded onto PA103 at Heathrow It is as we have said clear that with one exception the clothing in the primary suitcase was the clothing purchased in Mr Gauci s shop on 7 December 1988 The purchaser was on Mr Gauci s evidence a Libyan The trigger for the explosion was an MST 13 timer of the single solder mask variety A substantial quantity of such timers had been supplied to Libya We cannot say that it is impossible that the clothing might have been taken from Malta united somewhere with a timer from some source other than Libya and introduced into the airline baggage system at Frankfurt or Heathrow When however the evidence regarding the clothing the purchaser and the timer is taken with the evidence that an unaccompanied bag was taken from KM180 to PA103A the inference that that was the primary suitcase becomes in our view irresistible As we have also said the absence of an explanation as to how the suitcase was taken into the system at Luqa is a major difficulty for the Crown case but after taking full account of that difficulty we remain of the view that the primary suitcase began its journey at Luqa The clear inference which we draw from this evidence is that the conception planning and execution of the plot which led to the planting of the explosive device was of Libyan origin While no doubt organisations such as the PFLP GC and the PPSF were also engaged in terrorist activities during the same period we are satisfied that there was no evidence from which we could infer that they were involved in this particular act of terrorism and the evidence relating to their activities does not create a reasonable doubt in our minds about the Libyan origin of this crime 70 Appeal Edit The defence team had 14 days in which to appeal against Megrahi s conviction and an additional six weeks to submit the full grounds of the appeal These were considered by a judge sitting in private who decided to grant Megrahi leave to appeal The only basis for an appeal under Scots law is that a miscarriage of justice had occurred which is not defined in statute so the appeal court must determine the meaning of these words in each case 71 Because three judges and one alternate judge had presided over the trial five judges were required to preside over the Court of Criminal Appeal Lord Cullen Lord Justice General Lord Kirkwood Lord Osborne Lord Macfadyen and Lord Nimmo Smith In what was described as a milestone in Scottish legal history Lord Cullen granted the BBC permission in January 2002 to televise the appeal and to broadcast it on the Internet in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation William Taylor QC leading the defence said at the appeal s opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of significant evidence and had accepted unreliable facts He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the judge The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the defence claimed the original court was mistaken the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci which the judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the primary suitcase started its journey in Malta and disputing the prosecution s case fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb s journey actually started at Heathrow That evidence which was not heard at the trial showed that at some time in the two hours before 00 35 on 21 December 1988 a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access air side in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport near to the area referred to at the trial as the baggage build up area Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then 72 On 14 March 2002 Lord Cullen took less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Judiciary The five judges rejected the appeal ruling unanimously that none of the grounds of appeal was well founded adding this brings proceedings to an end The following day a helicopter took Megrahi from Camp Zeist to continue his life sentence in Barlinnie Prison Glasgow SCCRC review Edit Megrahi s lawyers applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission SCCRC on 23 September 2003 to have his case referred back to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a fresh appeal against conviction The application to the SCCRC followed the publication of two reports in February 2001 and March 2002 by Hans Kochler who had been an international observer at Camp Zeist appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations Kochler described the decisions of the trial and appeal courts as a spectacular miscarriage of justice 73 Kochler also issued a series of statements in 2003 2005 and 2007 calling for an independent international inquiry into the case and accusing the West of double standards in criminal justice in relation to the Lockerbie trial on the one hand and the HIV trial in Libya on the other 74 75 76 On 28 June 2007 the SCCRC announced its decision to refer Megrahi s case to the High Court for a second appeal against conviction 77 The SCCRC s decision was based on facts set out in an 800 page report that determined that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred 78 Kochler criticised the SCCRC for exonerating police prosecutors and forensic staff from blame in respect of Megrahi s alleged wrongful conviction He told The Herald of 29 June 2007 No officials to be blamed simply a Maltese shopkeeper 79 Kochler also highlighted the role of intelligence services in the trial and stated that proper judicial proceedings could not be conducted under conditions in which extrajudicial forces are allowed to intervene 80 Second appeal Edit A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court took place on 11 October 2007 when prosecution lawyers and Megrahi s defence counsel Maggie Scott QC discussed a number of legal issues with a panel of three judges 81 One of the issues concerned a number of documents that were shown before the trial to the prosecution but were not disclosed to the defence The documents are understood to relate to the Mebo MST 13 timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb 82 Maggie Scott also asked for documents relating to an alleged payment of 2 million made to Maltese merchant Tony Gauci for his testimony at the trial which led to the conviction of Megrahi 83 On 15 October 2008 five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office which sought to limit the scope of Megrahi s second appeal to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007 84 In January 2009 it was reported that although Megrahi s second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin in April 2009 the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined 85 The second appeal began on 28 April 2009 lasted for one month and was adjourned in May 2009 On 7 July 2009 the court reassembled for a procedural hearing and was told that because of the illness of one of the judges Lord Wheatley who was recovering from heart surgery the final two substantive appeal sessions would run from 2 November to 11 December 2009 and 12 January to 26 February 2010 Megrahi s lawyer Maggie Scott expressed dismay at the delays There is a very serious danger that my client will die before the case is determined 86 Compassionate release and controversy Edit Further information Release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi On 25 July 2009 Megrahi applied to be released from jail on compassionate grounds 87 Three weeks later on 12 August 2009 Megrahi applied to have his second appeal dropped and was granted compassionate release for his terminal prostate cancer 88 89 On 20 August 2009 Megrahi was released from prison and travelled by chartered jet to Libya 90 91 92 His survival beyond the approximate three month prognosis generated some controversy It is believed that following his release Al Megrahi was prescribed abiraterone and prednisone a combination that extends median survival by an average of 14 8 months After hospital treatment ended he returned to his family home Following his release Megrahi published evidence on the Internet that was gathered for the abandoned second appeal which he claimed would clear his name 93 Allegations have been made that the UK government and BP sought Al Megrahi s release as part of a trade deal with Libya In 2008 the UK government decided to do all it could to help the Libyans get Al Megrahi home and explained the legal procedure for compassionate release to the Libyans 94 Megrahi was released on licence so was obliged to remain in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council On 26 August 2011 it was announced that the whereabouts of Al Megrahi were unknown due to the social upheaval in Libya and that he had not been in contact for some time 95 As reported on 29 August he had been located and both the Scottish government and council issued a statement confirming that they had been in contact with his family and that his licence had not been breached MP Andrew Mitchell said Al Megrahi was comatose and near death CNN reporter Nic Robertson said he was just a shell of the man he once was and was surviving on oxygen and an intravenous drip In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton called for Al Megrahi to be extradited To me it will be a signal of how serious the rebel government is for good relations with the United States and the West if they hand over Megrahi for trial Mohammed al Alagi justice minister for the new leadership in Tripoli said the council would not allow any Libyan to be deported to face trial in another country Abdelbaset al Megrahi has already been judged once and will not be judged again 96 Megrahi died of prostate cancer in Libya on 20 May 2012 97 Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that people should use the occasion to remember the Lockerbie victims 97 Abu Agila Mohammad Mas ud Kheir Al Marimi EditIn 2020 US authorities indicted Libyan national Abu Agila Mohammad Mas ud Kheir Al Marimi for participating in the bombing 98 In December 2022 the United States government obtained custody of 71 year old Mas ud 99 100 According to The New York Times Mas ud was born in Tunisia in 1951 before he became a citizen of Libya as a child after he moved to Tripoli Libya 101 Beginning at the age of 22 in 1973 he began working with bombs for the Libyan intelligence service for the next 38 years Shortly after finishing his longtime run at the job Mas ud was arrested and imprisoned in Misurata Libya before being moved to Al Hadba prison in Tripoli which happened shortly after the fall of Colonel el Qaddafi in 2011 102 After the United States government obtained custody of Mas ud heads of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Libyan Parliament Talal al Mihoub and Youssef al Aqouri demanded an urgent investigation into the extradition of Mas ud calling it a blatant violation of national sovereignty and an infringement of the rights of the Libyan citizen They stressed that the case file had been completely closed politically and legally according to the text of the agreement signed between the United States and Libya in 2003 103 Alleged motives EditLibya Edit Gulf of Sidra Until 2002 Libya had never formally admitted carrying out the 1988 Lockerbie bombing On 16 August 2003 Libya formally admitted responsibility for Pan Am Flight 103 in a letter presented to the president of the United Nations Security Council Felicity Barringer of The New York Times said that the letter had general language that lacked any expression of remorse for the people killed in the bombing 104 The letter stated that it accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials 105 The motive that is generally attributed to Libya can be traced back to a series of military confrontations with the US Navy that took place in the 1980s in the Gulf of Sidra the whole of which Libya claimed as its territorial waters First there was the Gulf of Sidra incident 1981 when two Libyan fighter aircraft were shot down by two US Navy F 14 Tomcat fighters Then two Libyan radio ships were sunk in the Gulf of Sidra Later on 23 March 1986 a Libyan Navy patrol boat was sunk in the Gulf of Sidra 106 followed by the sinking of another Libyan vessel on 25 March 1986 107 The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was accused of retaliating for these sinkings by ordering the April 1986 bombing of La Belle a West Berlin nightclub frequented by US military personnel killing three people and injuring 230 108 The US National Security Agency s NSA alleged interception of an incriminatory message from Libya to its embassy in East Berlin provided US President Ronald Reagan with the justification for Operation El Dorado Canyon on 15 April 1986 with US Navy and US Marine Corps warplanes launching from three aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Sidra and US Air Force warplanes launching from two British bases 109 110 the first US military strikes from Britain since World War II against Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya The Libyan government claimed the air strikes killed Hana Gaddafi a daughter Gaddafi claimed he adopted her reported age has varied between 15 months and seven years 111 To avenge his daughter s supposed death Hana or Hanna s actual fate remains disputed Gaddafi is said to have sponsored the September 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi Pakistan 112 In turn the US encouraged the Chadian National Armed Forces FANT and it also aided them by supplying them with satellite intelligence during the Battle of Maaten al Sarra The attack resulted in a devastating defeat for Gaddafi s forces following which he had to accede to a ceasefire ending the Chadian Libyan conflict and his dreams of African dominance Gaddafi blamed the defeat on French and US aggression against Libya 113 The result was Gaddafi s lingering animosity against the two countries which led to Libyan support for the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 114 Demands for independent inquiry Edit Prior to the abandonment of Megrahi s second appeal against conviction and while new evidence could be still tested in court there had been few calls for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing Demands for such an inquiry emerged later and became more insistent On 2 September 2009 former MEP Michael McGowan demanded that the UK government call for an urgent independent inquiry led by the UN to find out the truth about Pan Am flight 103 We owe it to the families of the victims of Lockerbie and the international community to identify those responsible McGowan said 115 Two online petitions were started one calling for a UK public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing 116 the other a UN inquiry into the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia Bernt Carlsson in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing In September 2009 a third petition which was addressed to the President of the United Nations General Assembly demanded that the UN should institute a full public inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster 117 On 3 October 2009 Malta was asked to table a UN resolution supporting the petition which was signed by 20 people including the families of the Lockerbie victims authors journalists professors politicians and parliamentarians as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu The signatories considered that a UN inquiry could help remove many of the deep misgivings which persist in lingering over this tragedy and could also eliminate Malta from this terrorist act Malta was brought into the case because the prosecution argued that the two accused Libyans Abdelbaset al Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah had placed the bomb on an Air Malta aircraft before it was transferred at Frankfurt airport to a feeder flight destined for London s Heathrow airport from which Pan Am Flight 103 departed The Maltese government responded saying that the demand for a UN inquiry was an interesting development that would be deeply considered although there were complex issues surrounding the event 118 On 24 August 2009 Lockerbie campaigner Dr Jim Swire wrote to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for a full inquiry including the question of suppression of the Heathrow evidence This was backed up by a delegation of Lockerbie relatives led by Pamela Dix who went to 10 Downing Street on 24 October 2009 and handed over a letter addressed to Gordon Brown calling for a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the need for a public inquiry and the main issues that it should address 119 An op ed article by Pamela Dix subtitled The families of those killed in the bombing have not given up hope of an inquiry to help us learn the lessons of this tragedy was published in The Guardian on 26 October 2009 120 On 1 November 2009 it was reported that Gordon Brown had ruled out a public inquiry into Lockerbie saying in response to Dr Swire s letter I understand your desire to understand the events surrounding the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 but I do not think it would be appropriate for the UK government to open an inquiry of this sort UK ministers explained that it was for the Scottish Government to decide if it wants to hold its own more limited inquiry into the worst terrorist attack on British soil The Scottish Government had already rejected an independent inquiry saying it lacks the constitutional power to examine the international dimensions of the case 121 Concluding his extensive reply dated 27 October 2009 to the Prime Minister Dr Swire said You have now received a much more comprehensive letter requesting a full inquiry from our group UK Families Flight 103 I am one of the signatories I hope that the contents of this letter underline some of the reasons as to why I cannot possibly accept that any inquiry should be limited to Scotland and I apologise if my previous personal letter of 24 August misled you over the main focus that the inquiry will need to address That focus lies in London and at the door of the then inhabitant of Number 10 Downing Street I look forward to hearing your comments both to our group s letter and to the contents of this one 122 Claims of Gaddafi involvement Edit On 23 February 2011 amidst the Libyan Civil War Mustafa Abdul Jalil former Libyan Justice Minister and later member and Chairman of the anti Gaddafi National Transitional Council alleged that he had evidence that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had personally ordered Abdelbaset al Megrahi to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 123 124 In a July 2021 interview Gaddafi s son Saif al Islam said that his father had stopped riding his horse after the humiliation of the American bombing of Tripoli in 1986 and resumed riding it after the Lockerbie bombing 125 Alternative theories Edit Main article Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories Based on a 1995 investigation by journalists Paul Foot and John Ashton alternative explanations of the plot to commit the Lockerbie bombing were listed by The Guardian s Patrick Barkham in 1999 126 Following the Lockerbie verdict in 2001 and the appeal in 2002 attempts have been made to re open the case amid allegations that Libya was framed One theory suggests the bomb on the plane was detonated by radio Another theory suggests the CIA prevented the suitcase containing the bomb from being searched Iran s involvement is alleged either in association with a Palestine militant group or in loading the bomb while the plane was at Heathrow The US Defense Intelligence Agency alleges that Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur Ayatollah Mohtashemi a member of the Iranian government paid US 10 million for the bombing Ayatollah Mohtashemi and was the one who paid the same amount to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the 310 127 Other theories implicate Libya and Abu Nidal and apartheid South Africa French investigative journalist Pierre Pean accused Thomas Thurman a Federal Bureau of Investigation explosives expert of fabricating false evidence against Libya in both the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 sabotages 128 129 PCAST statement Edit On 29 September 1989 President Bush appointed Ann McLaughlin Korologos former Secretary of Labor to chair the President s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism PCAST to review and report on aviation security policy in the light of the sabotage of flight PA103 Oliver Revell the FBI s Executive Assistant Director was assigned to advise and assist PCAST in their task 130 Before they submitted their report the PCAST members met a group of British PA103 relatives at the US embassy in London on 12 February 1990 One of the British relatives Martin Cadman alleges that a member of President Bush s staff told him Your government and ours know exactly what happened but they are never going to tell 131 The statement first came to public attention in the 1994 documentary film The Maltese Double Cross Lockerbie and was published in both The Guardian of 12 November 1994 and a special report from Private Eye magazine entitled Lockerbie the flight from justice May June 2001 Compensation EditFrom Libya Edit On 29 May 2002 Libya offered up to US 2 7 billion to settle claims by the families of the 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing representing US 10 million per family The Libyan offer was that 40 of the money would be released when United Nations sanctions suspended in 1999 were cancelled another 40 when US trade sanctions were lifted and the final 20 when the US State Department removed Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism 132 Jim Kreindler of the New York law firm Kreindler amp Kreindler which orchestrated the settlement said These are uncharted waters It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims The US State Department maintained that it was not directly involved Some families want cash others say it is blood money said a State Department official 132 Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorism which Libya said it had already made and accepting responsibility for the actions of its officials 133 132 On 15 August 2003 Libya s UN ambassador Ahmed Own submitted a letter to the UN Security Council formally accepting responsibility for the actions of its officials in relation to the Lockerbie bombing 134 The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US 8 million from which legal fees of about US 2 5 million were deducted and as a result the UN cancelled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier and US trade sanctions were lifted A further US 2 million would have gone to each family had the US State Department removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism but as this did not happen by the deadline set by Libya the Libyan Central Bank withdrew the remaining US 540 million in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland through which the earlier US 2 16 billion compensation for the victims families had been paid 135 The United States announced resumption of full diplomatic relations with Libya after deciding to remove it from its list of countries that support terrorism on 15 May 2006 136 On 24 February 2004 Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem stated in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his country had paid the compensation as the price for peace and to secure the lifting of sanctions Asked if Libya did not accept guilt he said I agree with that He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London Gaddafi later retracted Ghanem s comments under pressure from Washington and London 137 A civil action against Libya continued until 18 February 2005 on behalf of Pan Am and its insurers which went bankrupt partly as a result of the attack The airline was seeking 4 5 billion for the loss of the aircraft and the effect on the airline s business 138 In the wake of the SCCRC s June 2007 decision there have been suggestions that if Megrahi s second appeal had been successful and his conviction had been overturned Libya could have sought to recover the 2 16 billion compensation paid to the relatives 139 Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on 7 December 2007 Saif al Islam Gaddafi said that the seven Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings are innocent When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims US 33 billion in total Saif Gaddafi replied I don t know 140 Following discussions in London in May 2008 US and Libyan officials agreed to start negotiations to resolve all outstanding bilateral compensation claims including those relating to UTA Flight 772 the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing and Pan Am Flight 103 141 On 14 August 2008 a US Libya compensation deal was signed in Tripoli by US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch and Libya s Foreign Ministry head of America affairs Ahmed al Fatroui The agreement covers 26 lawsuits filed by American citizens against Libya and three by Libyan citizens in respect of the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 which killed at least 40 people and injured 220 142 In October 2008 Libya paid 1 5 billion into a fund which will be used to compensate relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20 of the sum agreed in 2003 American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing and Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi As a result President Bush signed Executive Order 13477 restoring the Libyan government s immunity from terror related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the US the White House said 143 US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the move a laudable milestone clearing the way for a continued and expanding US Libyan partnership 144 In an interview shown in BBC Two s The Conspiracy Files Lockerbie 145 on 31 August 2008 Saif Gaddafi said that Libya had admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing simply to get trade sanctions removed He went on to describe the families of the Lockerbie victims as very greedy They were asking for more money and more money and more money 146 Several of the victims families refused to accept compensation due to their belief that Libya was not responsible 147 February 2011 Edit In an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen on 23 February 2011 Mustafa Abdul Jalil former Justice Secretary of Libya claimed to have evidence that Gaddafi personally ordered Al Megrahi to carry out the bombing 123 Quotes Jalil told Expressen Khadafy sic gave the order to Abdel Baset al Megrahi the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground on 21 December 1988 To hide it he Khadafy did everything in his power to get al Megrahi back from Scotland Abdel Jalil was quoted as saying 148 Al Jalil s commentary to the Expressen came during widespread political unrest and protests in Libya calling for the removal of Ghaddafi from power The protests were part of a massive wave of unprecedented uprisings across the Arab world in Tunisia Morocco Bahrain and Egypt where Egyptian protesters effectively forced the removal of long term ruler Hosni Mubarak from office Jalil s comments came on a day when Ghaddafi s defiance and refusal to leave his command prompted his brutal attacks on Libyan protesters Abdel Jalil stepped down as minister of justice in protest over the violence against anti government demonstrations 148 Contingency fees for lawyers Edit On 5 December 2003 Jim Kreindler revealed that his Park Avenue law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US 1 million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents The firm s fees could exceed US 300 million eventually Kreindler argued that the fees were justified since Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money 135 Another top legal firm in the US Speiser Krause which represented 60 relatives of whom half were UK families concluded contingency deals securing them fees of between 28 and 35 of individual settlements Frank Granito of Speiser Krause noted that the rewards in the US are more substantial than anywhere else in the world but nobody has questioned the fee whilst the work has been going on it is only now as we approach a resolution when the criticism comes your way 149 In March 2009 it was announced that US lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie amp Associates received fees of 2 million for the work it did from 2006 through 2008 helping the PA103 relatives obtain payment by Libya of the final 2 million compensation out of a total of 10 million that was due to each family 150 From Pan Am Edit In 1992 a US federal court found Pan Am guilty of willful misconduct due to lax security screening caused by not implementing baggage reconciliation a new security program mandated by the FAA prior to the incident which requires unaccompanied luggage to be searched by hand and to ensure passengers board flights onto which they have checked baggage Pan Am relied more on the less effective method of x ray screening Two of Pan Am s subsidiaries Alert Management Inc which handles Pan Am s security at foreign airports and Pan American World Services were also found guilty 151 Memorials and tributes Edit Lockerbie Cairn in Arlington National Cemetery U S Inscription on memorial at Arlington National Cemetery There are several private and public memorials to the PA103 victims Dark Elegy is the work of sculptor Suse Lowenstein of Long Island whose son Alexander then 21 was a passenger on the flight The work consists of 43 nude statues of the wives and mothers who lost a husband or a child Inside each sculpture there is a personal memento of the victim 152 United States Edit Syracuse University s memorial in Syracuse New York On 3 November 1995 then US President Bill Clinton dedicated a Memorial Cairn to the victims at Arlington National Cemetery 153 and there are similar memorials at Syracuse University Dryfesdale Cemetery near Lockerbie and in Sherwood Crescent Lockerbie 154 Syracuse University holds a memorial week every year called Remembrance Week to commemorate its 35 lost students Every 21 December a service is held in the university s chapel at 14 03 19 03 UTC marking the moment the bomb on board the aircraft was detonated 155 The university also awards university tuition fees to two students from Lockerbie Academy each year in the form of its Lockerbie scholarship In addition the university annually awards 35 scholarships to seniors to honour each of the 35 students killed 156 157 The Remembrance Scholarships are among the highest honors a Syracuse undergraduate can receive SUNY Oswego also gives out scholarships in memorial of Colleen Brunner to a student who is studying abroad 158 A memorial plaque and garden in memory of its two students lost in the bombing is set in the University of Rochester s Eastman Quadrangle 159 Memorial Plaque in Honor of Eric Coker and Katharine Hollister Eastman Quadrangle University of RochesterAt Cornell University funds from the Libyan payment were used to establish a memorial professorship in honor of student Kenneth J Bissett 160 The Women of Lockerbie Edit The Women of Lockerbie 2003 is a play written by Deborah Brevoort which depicts a woman from New Jersey roaming the hills of Lockerbie Scotland This mother tragically lost her son in the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 While in Lockerbie 7 years after the flight she meets the women who witnessed and were affected by the crash itself while she attempts to find closure 161 This play has received the Silver Medal from the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award 162 Lockerbie Edit Memorial at Dryfesdale Cemetery The main UK memorial is at Dryfesdale Cemetery about one mile 1 5 kilometres west of Lockerbie There is a semicircular stone wall in the garden of remembrance with the names and nationalities of all the victims along with individual funeral stones and memorials Inside the chapel at Dryfesdale there is a book of remembrance There are memorials in Lockerbie and Moffat Roman Catholic churches where plaques list the names of all 270 victims In Lockerbie Town Hall Council Chambers there is a stained glass window depicting flags of the 21 countries whose citizens lost their lives in the disaster There is also a book of remembrance at Lockerbie public library and another at Tundergarth Church 163 164 In Sherwood Crescent there is a garden of remembrance to the seven Lockerbie residents killed when the aircraft s main wreckage fell there destroying their homes 165 Wreckage of the aircraft EditThe Air Accidents Investigation Branch reassembled a large part of the fuselage to aid with the investigation this has been retained as evidence and stored in a hangar at Farnborough Airport since the bombing As of 2008 the remaining wreckage of the aircraft was stored about a mile from Tattershall Lincolnshire at Roger Windley s scrapyard 53 7 19 35 N 0 12 58 09 W 53 1220417 N 0 2161361 W 53 1220417 0 2161361 Windley s Scrapyard pending the conclusion of the American victims civil case and further legal proceedings 166 The remains include the nose section of the Boeing 747 which was cut into several pieces to assist in removal from Tundergarth Hill 167 It was announced in April 2013 that part of the wreckage was transferred to a secure location in Dumfries Scotland and that it remains evidence in the ongoing criminal investigation 168 In popular culture EditThe events of Flight 103 were featured in Lockerbie Disaster a Season 7 2009 episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the US and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world 169 It is also featured in a documentary film The Maltese Double Cross Lockerbie The bombing is also compared with the death of actor Brandon Lee on the track Gold off of hip hop artist GZA s 1995 album Liquid Swords in the lyric Snake got smoked on the set like Brandon Lee blown out the frame like Pan Am Flight 103 citation needed The book The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein was published about his brother who died in the crash See also EditAir India Flight 182 Another terrorist bombing over the Atlantic Ocean en route to London over Irish airspace Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 allegedly shot down by order of Muammar Gaddafi in order to show the negative effects of the sanctions which were imposed on Libya after the bombing of Flight 103 Itavia Flight 870 Metrojet Flight 9268 List of accidents and incidents involving 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bombing says Libyan minister New York Post 23 February 2011 McDougall Dan 9 November 2002 US Lockerbie lawyers to net 500m The Scotsman UK Archived from the original on 30 August 2009 Fram Alan The Influence Game Lobbyists who aided families of Pan Am bombing victims earn 2 million fee Associated Press Retrieved 7 March 2014 Treadwell Daniel 11 July 1992 Pan Am Guilty of Willful Misconduct Los Angeles Times Retrieved 9 August 2009 Dark Elergy Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Archived from the original on 14 October 2007 Retrieved 21 December 2008 Nguyen Lan 4 November 1995 Remembering Flight 103 2 000 Attend Unveiling of Monument in Arlington The Washington Post p B3 The night fire and victims rained on Lockerbie ABC News 20 August 2009 University remembers Flight 103 25 of 35 students were from Syracuse The Philadelphia Inquirer 18 December 1998 35 scholarships honor Lockerbie crash victims Orlando Sentinel 5 December 1990 Remembrance Scholarships at Syracuse University Colleen Brunner Memorial Scholarship Archived 28 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine Adventures in Education Hauser Scott Lessons of Lockerbie rochester edu University of Rochester Cornell professorship funded by 3 8 million Libyan payment for student killed in Lockerbie bombing news cornell edu Dramatists Play Service Inc www dramatists com Retrieved 17 March 2018 The Women of Lockerbie Deborah Brevoort www deborahbrevoort com Retrieved 17 March 2018 Cohen Susan Cohen Daniel 2000 Pan AM 103 the bombing the betrayals and a bereaved family s search for justice New American Library p 152 Britton Daryl June 2008 Elegies of Darkness Commemorations of the Bombing of Pan Am 103 PhD thesis Syracuse NY Syracuse University ISBN 9780549861195 Document No 3333563ProQuest 304385639 Google Streetview Sherwood Crescent Memorial Retrieved 31 May 2016 Lockerbie disaster Pan am flight 103 remains lie forgotten in a Lincolnshire scrapyard The Scotsman 4 December 2018 Retrieved 18 July 2021 Authentic Pan Am 103 cockpit wreck photo Archived from the original on 17 April 2003 Retrieved 8 January 2009 Lockerbie wreckage parts returned to Scotland BBC News BBC 25 April 2013 Retrieved 25 April 2013 Lockerbie Disaster Mayday Season 7 Episode 1 2009 Discovery Channel Canada National Geographic Further reading EditU S Policy in the Aftermath of the Bombing of Pan Am 103 PDF Washington DC U S Government Printing Office 1994 Emerson Steven Duffy Brian 1990 The Fall of Pan Am 103 Inside the Lockerbie Investigation ISBN 0 399 13521 9 Cox Matthew Foster Tom 1992 Their Darkest Day The Tragedy of Pan Am 103 ISBN 0 8021 1382 6 Johnston David 1989 Lockerbie The True Story ISBN missing Goddard Donald Coleman Lester 1993 Trail of the Octopus ISBN 0 451 18184 0 Ashton John Ferguson Ian 2001 Cover up of Convenience The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie ISBN 1 84018 389 6 Ashton John 2012 Megrahi You Are My Jury ISBN 978 1780270159 Bannon Kevin 2020 How Abdelbaset al Megrahi became convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing ISBN 978 1786236661 Kerr Morag 2013 Adequately Explained by Stupidity ISBN 978 1783062508 Brown David A 9 January 1989 Investigators Expand Search for Debris From Bombed 747 Aviation Week and Space Technology 130 25 26 27 Shifrin Carole A 7 September 1990 British Issue Report on Flight 103 Urge Study on Reducing Effects of Explosions Aviation Week and Space Technology 133 12 128 129 Cowell Alan 29 June 2007 Scottish Panel Challenges Lockerbie Conviction New York Times Retrieved 16 September 2009 The Scottish indictment against Megrahi and Fhimah 13 November 1991 Retrieved 27 February 2005 The U S indictment against Megrahi and Fhimah Archived 8 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine 13 November 1991 Retrieved 26 February 2005 The Scottish judges Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 26 February 2005 The verdict against Megrahi and Fhimah Archived 18 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine issued 31 January 2001 Retrieved 26 February 2005 No 2 9 Boeing 747 121 N739PA at Lockerbie Dumfriesshire Scotland Air Accident Investigation Branch AAIB report Retrieved 27 February 2005 The position of the bomb AAIB report Appendix F pdf Retrieved 27 February 2005 Mach stem shock wave effects AAIB report Appendix G pdf Retrieved 27 February 2005 Aviation Safety Network summary report Retrieved 27 February 2005 Graphic of how the aircraft was destroyed Aviation Safety Network Retrieved 27 February 2005 The cost of the trial Retrieved 26 February 2005 The judgment in Megrahi s appeal Archived 6 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine 14 March 2002 Retrieved 26 February 2005 United Nations Security Council Resolution 731 1992 Archived 20 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine 21 January 1992 Retrieved 26 February 2005 United Nations Security Council Resolution 748 1992 Archived 9 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine 21 January 1992 Retrieved 26 February 2005 United Nations Security Council Resolution 883 1993 Archived 13 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine 11 November 1993 Retrieved 26 February 2005 In depth pages on the trial BBC News Retrieved 26 February 2005 Lessons from Lockerbie ten years later BBC News Retrieved 26 February 2005 The Lockerbie Trial Retrieved 29 December 2008 Rowan Roy 27 April 1992 Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die Time Archived from the original on 13 February 2006 Retrieved 25 February 2005 Time Trail Lockerbie a collection of stories about the bombing from Time Magazine Retrieved 25 February 2005 Lockerbie appeal hears key witness BBC News 13 February 2002 Retrieved 26 February 2005 Lockerbie bomber loses appeal BBC News 14 March 2002 Retrieved 26 February 2005 Lockerbie bomber to fight jail move by Lucy Adams The Herald 25 February 2005 Retrieved 26 February 2005 Website set up by supporters of Megrahi not recently updated Retrieved 27 February 2005 Abu Nidal behind Lockerbie says aide CNN 23 August 2002 Retrieved 27 February 2005 Court told how jet s radar blip broke up at 7 02 pm by Ian Black and Gerard Seenan 4 May 2000 The Guardian Retrieved 28 February 2005 Cassell Andrew 21 December 1998 Lockerbie 10 years on Reporter s reflections BBC News Retrieved 3 January 2010 Rizzo Patrick 29 May 2002 Libya offers 2 7 billion Lockerbie settlement The Namibian Archived from the original on 4 January 2006 Kirkup James 11 April 2005 The Scotsman Edinburgh Archived from the original on 6 July 2009 Duffy Brian 18 November 1989 On the trail of terror U S News amp World Report Flight 103 ABC News Prime Time Live 30 November 1989 Doyle Leonard 19 December 1990 Lockerbie bomb bore Libyan signature The Independent UK Unwitting Accomplices Barron s 17 December 1989 Timer admission in Lockerbie trial by Gerard Seenan 21 June 2000 Mr Waldegrave House of Commons Hansard Debates in The United Kingdom Parliament 19 April 1990 Retrieved 16 June 2005 Thatcher Margaret 1993 The Downing Street Years ISBN 9780060170561 Koechler H and Jason Subler eds The Lockerbie Trial Documents Related to the I P O Observer Mission Studies in International Relations Vol XXVII Vienna International Progress Organization 2002 ISBN 3 900704 21 X Scottish Court in the Netherlands 2000 2002 Web site documenting the observer mission of Dr Hans Koechler appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as international observer at the Lockerbie trial regularly updated International Progress Organization Retrieved 2005 Cohen Dan and Susan 2000 Pan Am 103 the Bombing the Betrayals and a Bereaved Family s Search for Justice ISBN 0 451 20270 8 Dornstein Ken 2006 The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky ISBN 0 375 50359 5 Leppard David 1992 On the Trail of Terror Marquise Richard A 2006 Scotbom Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation ISBN 978 0 87586 449 5 Report of the President s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism PDF U S Government Printing Office 15 May 1990 Archived from the original PDF on 22 July 2004 Kreindler James P The Lockerbie Case and its Implications for State Sponsored Terrorism in Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs Vol 1 No 2 2007 Haldane Jill S An then the world came tae oor doorstep Lockerbie Lives and Stories The Grimsay Press 2008 4 News bbc co uk Lockerbie pair could have survived External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pan Am Flight 103 External image airliners net s Photo galleryPan Am 103 Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives at Syracuse University Air Accident Investigation Branch Aircraft Accident Report 2 1990 Report on the accident to Boeing 747 121 N739PA at Lockerbie Dumfriesshire Scotland on 21 December 1988 2 1990 Aircraft Accident Report 2 1990 Appendices A G BBC online interview with Jaswant Basuta Byte Out Of History Solving a complex case of international terrorism Federal Bureau of Investigation Defense Intelligence Agency Redacted Pan Am Report response to a FOIA 11 MB PDF Archive It Happened in Lockerbie 20 August 09 Part 1 Al Jazeera 20 August 2009 Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 International observer mission of the president of the International Progress Organization Dr Hans Koechler at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands Lockerbie Court Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc Portals United States Scotland United Kingdom Libya Aviation 1980s Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pan Am Flight 103 amp oldid 1151079934, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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