The Pan Am Flight 103 air crash investigation began on December 21, 1988, shortly after seven o'clock in the evening in the small village of Lockerbie in the county of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The village is accessible by highway A74(M). There is a golf course nearby, a train station and King Edward Park.
The peaceful, unassuming little town was never to be the same. Pan American Airlines Flight 103 was en route to New York City. Originating in Frankfurt, Germany, with a stop at London's Heathrow Airport to drop off and pick up passengers. At three minutes past seven that Thursday evening, Flight 103 exploded over the tiny village, killing 259 people, as well as 11 people on the ground. The explosion left a six-mile trail of destruction on the ground.
Three days before the incident, on December 18, American embassies in Finland and Russia had circulated warnings threats that had been received of a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States planned to be the target of a terrorist attack. While the airline was made aware of the threats, as were the relevant police departments, the threat was not made public. People who were intending to board the aircraft in London but who didn't make it were an Indian mechanic, Jaswant Basuta (who was, for a while, a suspect in the bombing), American singing group, the Four Tops, and Pik Botha, the foreign minister for South Africa.
An unaccompanied suitcase was discovered to have been flown from Malta to Frankfurt, where it was placed on Pan Am Flight 103A to London. Coincidentally, or not, the plane in Malta had also been boarded by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, later convicted of murder for masterminding the attack. To prevent future incidents of unaccompanied luggage, security at minor airports all over the globe has been strictly tightened in the wake of the Lockerbie incident.
Meticulous searches of the local area as part of the investigation led to the collection of 56 fragments of a suitcase that revealed severe damage from a bomb. The suitcase was believed to have contained a circuit board from the bomb, wrapped in a children's t-shirt from Malta. The shopkeeper in Malta originally identified the man who purchased the item to be Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, although he later retracted his claim.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing at a trial held in the Netherlands, a neutral country in the years 2000 and 2001. He was tried under Scottish law, as that was the site of the crime.
After a trial that lasted nine months, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 27 years. In 2008, it was announced that he was suffering from terminal cancer of the prostate. In an extremely controversial decision, Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, allowed him out of prison on compassionate grounds and he was flown home to Libya. There was a massive public outcry on both sides of the Atlantic. To many observers, the Libyan people rubbed salt into the wounds by giving al-Megrahi a hero's welcome.
The Pan Am Flight 103 air crash investigation was led by Chief Inspector Watson McAteer and John Orr of Scotland. On the American team were Lawrence Whittaker, Robert Muller, Vincent Cannistraro and James Shaughnessy. One year after the crash, the investigation had amassed 35,000 photographs, 15,000 statements and 12,700 name cards. Investigators had traveled to 13 countries.
The peaceful, unassuming little town was never to be the same. Pan American Airlines Flight 103 was en route to New York City. Originating in Frankfurt, Germany, with a stop at London's Heathrow Airport to drop off and pick up passengers. At three minutes past seven that Thursday evening, Flight 103 exploded over the tiny village, killing 259 people, as well as 11 people on the ground. The explosion left a six-mile trail of destruction on the ground.
Three days before the incident, on December 18, American embassies in Finland and Russia had circulated warnings threats that had been received of a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States planned to be the target of a terrorist attack. While the airline was made aware of the threats, as were the relevant police departments, the threat was not made public. People who were intending to board the aircraft in London but who didn't make it were an Indian mechanic, Jaswant Basuta (who was, for a while, a suspect in the bombing), American singing group, the Four Tops, and Pik Botha, the foreign minister for South Africa.
An unaccompanied suitcase was discovered to have been flown from Malta to Frankfurt, where it was placed on Pan Am Flight 103A to London. Coincidentally, or not, the plane in Malta had also been boarded by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, later convicted of murder for masterminding the attack. To prevent future incidents of unaccompanied luggage, security at minor airports all over the globe has been strictly tightened in the wake of the Lockerbie incident.
Meticulous searches of the local area as part of the investigation led to the collection of 56 fragments of a suitcase that revealed severe damage from a bomb. The suitcase was believed to have contained a circuit board from the bomb, wrapped in a children's t-shirt from Malta. The shopkeeper in Malta originally identified the man who purchased the item to be Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, although he later retracted his claim.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing at a trial held in the Netherlands, a neutral country in the years 2000 and 2001. He was tried under Scottish law, as that was the site of the crime.
After a trial that lasted nine months, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 27 years. In 2008, it was announced that he was suffering from terminal cancer of the prostate. In an extremely controversial decision, Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, allowed him out of prison on compassionate grounds and he was flown home to Libya. There was a massive public outcry on both sides of the Atlantic. To many observers, the Libyan people rubbed salt into the wounds by giving al-Megrahi a hero's welcome.
The Pan Am Flight 103 air crash investigation was led by Chief Inspector Watson McAteer and John Orr of Scotland. On the American team were Lawrence Whittaker, Robert Muller, Vincent Cannistraro and James Shaughnessy. One year after the crash, the investigation had amassed 35,000 photographs, 15,000 statements and 12,700 name cards. Investigators had traveled to 13 countries.
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