In a matter of hours, thousands of police officers, firefighters, military personnel, and other volunteers converged on rural Lockerbie. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Four days before Christmas in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded 31,000 feet above Scotland. Then-Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi denied any culpability for the attack. Thirty years after the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the FBI and its partners are still actively seeking justice for the 270 victims and their families. In all, 270 souls perished. Al Jalil's commentary to the Expressen came during widespread political unrest and protests in Libya calling for the removal of Ghaddafi from power. Megrahi was ultimately found guilty and jailed for a minimum of 27 years. Like many of his colleagues, the case consumed every minute of his professional life. On 20 December 1988, Swire's 23-year-old daughter Flora, who wanted to fly to the United States to spend Christmas with her American boyfriend, had little difficulty in booking a seat on the next day's half-empty transatlantic Pan Am Flight 103.Flora died when it crashed at the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 including 11 on the ground.. Richard Granat-the creator of MyLawyer.com, SmartLegalForms and the People's Law Library of Maryland-has joined Intraspexion, a new artificial-intelligence software company, as a strategic adviser. Published The attack on Pan Am flight 103 killed 270 people, including 190 Americans. All Rights Reserved. Act as a Spokesperson In case of an emergency, one person should take primary responsibility to speak on behalf of the entire organization to eliminate conflicting messages and to prevent the spread of misinformation. Covers the bombing of the Boeing 747 Pan American Airways flight 103 at Lockerbie, Scotland at 1903 hours on December 21, 1988 that killed 259 passengers and crew and 11 Lockerbie residents. A series of test explosions was carried out to confirm the precise location and quantity of explosive used. They turned up in a sports car and made me feel quite uneasy. 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. 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. Shortly after Mueller became FBI Director in 2001just days before the 9/11 attackshe asked Turman to establish a new Office for Victim Assistance at the FBI. 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. (AP Photo: File)All over Lockerbie, those who hadn't been killed because 11 people on the . Turmans team proposed an idea without precedent: Create a website and provide closed-circuit video coverage of the trial that families could access in various locations on two continents. More U.S. civilians died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland than in any other terrorist attack except 9/11. This is a place that offers us comfort and such a special bond with the couple who found him, says tragic banker Frank Ciullas daughter Laurie Ciulla, mum of three of his grandchildren. 363 Lockerbie Plane Crash Premium High Res Photos The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19,000ft (5,800m), when its dive became nearly vertical. Of the 270 total fatalities, 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. Chapter 13 Notes - Leadership - 13 Leadership in Crisis The Crucible of 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. "I now know the person I need to remember. Lockerbie detectives tell of fingertip search - The Guardian Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. We hoped we would have at least several days notice so we could get families over for the verdict, Turman said. A leading rights group has urged the U.S. and Libya to clarify the legality of a surprise extradition of a suspect in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Pan-Am-flight-103, Rights group questions Lockerbie suspects extradition. Weve grown incredibly close to Hugh and Margaret over the years, calling each other, sending Christmas gifts and writing old-fashioned letters. David Jardine, now a group commander with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, was 19 years old and had just completed basic training with the Dumfries and Galloway Fire Brigade. Ive never seen a law enforcement agency other than the Scottish police who did anything like this, Turman said. Tests were carried out on the bodies of 233 of the victims. In 2009 Megrahi, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya; the United States strongly disagreed with the Scottish governments decision. Each year, the university names 35 Remembrance Scholars, one for every student who died. In many homes, dinner plates had been cleared away, televisions were tuned to This Is Your Life, and parents were wrapping presents. The 259 people on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 are killed, along with . On Wednesday 21 December, 1988, just after 7pm, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded above the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the . The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 may have taken place more than 30 years ago, but the appearance of alleged bombmaker Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi in a US court on Monday has sparked a new wave of interest in the attack. Thirty-five Syracuse students returning home from a study abroad program were killed on the flight, and the university vowed never to forget them. No distress call was recorded; a 180-millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft's communications center. [67], On 11 December 2022, the United States advised they had Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi in custody. June Wilson died last year. The approach was to make sure that families have information, make sure they have support, make sure we take their needs seriously and help them get through one of the most horrible things that can happen to somebody., Today, it is standard procedure for what is now the FBIs Victim Services Division to clean and return personal effects to victims of crimes. [147], 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. MP Andrew Mitchell said Al-Megrahi was comatose and near death. 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. Documania. 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. Lockerbie bombing: 'What really brought it home was when you were [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. May 2000: Lockerbie trial opens in Netherlands under Scottish Law. Both Pan Am and TWA routinely changed the type of aircraft operating different legs of a flight. The couple then kept watch over him for 24 hours and even asked rescue teams if they could take him into their home, away from the biting cold. December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit via London blows up. As a new officer, he was assigned a 12-hour night shift securing the property store. Listen to article. [50] Jalil claimed to possess "documents that prove [his allegations] and [that he is] ready to hand them over to the international criminal court. We have had contact with a lot of different people in the FBI over the years, said the groups president, Kara Weipz, and they have become almost like family members. The planes wings, along with tanks carrying 100 tons of jet fuel, plummeted into Lockerbies Sherwood Crescent neighborhood, creating an inferno and a crater more than 150 feet deep that registered miles away as a seismic event. 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. [21], The explosion punched a 50cm (20in) hole on the left side of the fuselage. Syracuse Universitys Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: 30 Years Later, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: David Jardine, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: George Stobbs, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Stuart Cossar, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Harry Bell, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Dick Marquise, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Kathryn Turman, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Tom McCullough, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: The 'Laundry Ladies', Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Alex Smith, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Graeme Galloway, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Katie Berrell, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Kara Weipz, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Mary Kay Stratis, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Carole Johnson, Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: Vanessa St. Oegger-Menn, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. [7], 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. Pan Am 103 originated as a feeder flight at Frankfurt Airport, West Germany, using a Boeing 727 and the flight number PA103-A. 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. Eladia Slade. [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. This summer, Laurie took her husband Noel Plasker, 51, and children Chloe, 21, Ethan, 19 and 15-year-old Leo to meet the Connells, now both in their 70s, while sister Michelle Lipkin took her husband Jeremy and children Jude, 16, and 14-year-old Simone. [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. The first thing was to really try to understand what the families wanted and expected, she explained. The US Defense Intelligence Agency alleges that Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur (Ayatollah Mohtashemi), a member of the Iranian government, paid US$10million 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]. We're trying to make our own little difference with the people in our lives., Weipz believes the goals of the family group and the university are essentially the same: to look back and forward at the same time to honor the victims. Pan Am Flight 103 Explodes Over Scotland - HISTORY [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. Steven Flannigan: Orphan of Lockerbie bombing. - Mamamia He met the families, and the compassion shown to them by the Scottish police made a deep impression on him. A flight attendant was found alive by a farmer's wife, but died before help could be summoned. In July 2010 an investigation spurred by U.S. senators revealed that oil company BP had lobbied for a prisoner transfer agreement between the United Kingdom and Libya. Airlines bent over backwards to book people on overnight flights. We update each other on what both organizations are doing, we have regular face-to-face meetings, whether in the U.S. or Scotland, and we keep in contact., If I had a message to tell the families and people around the world, Cossar added, it is that this is very much a live investigation, and we are hopeful that at some point in the future we will have potentially another trial and possibly another conviction.. [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. 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The trigger for the explosion was an MST-13 timer of the single solder mask variety. 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. All 259 on board die, and 11 on ground. A total of 270 people were killed when a bomb ripped apart Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. Read about our approach to external linking. About 7:00 pm on December 21, Pan Am flight 103, a Boeing 747 en route to New York City from . WICHITA, Kan. (AP) _ The pilot and at least 147 other victims of the Lockerbie disaster may have survived the bomb blast that ripped the plane apart at 31,000 feet and died when they hit the ground, a forensic pathologist said. The flight was in route from Heathrow Airport London to New York City. There are memorials in Lockerbie and Moffat Roman Catholic churches, where plaques list the names of all 270 victims. Libya's High Council of State fails to vote on constitutional amendment PA103 was bookable as either a single FrankfurtNew York or a FrankfurtDetroit itinerary, though a scheduled change of aircraft took place in London's Heathrow Airport. It was held at a former U.S. Air Force base in the Netherlands called Camp Zeist, which was converted into a Scottish court as well as a detention facility for the two defendants. Although both BP and the U.K. government denied that Megrahi was discussed specifically, in 2009 British justice minister Jack Straw had stated that BPs business dealings with the Libyan government were a factor in considering his case. Targets specified are Pan Am Airlines and US military bases.' I actually saw a wrought iron gate melting. He'd gone to the farm where the body of 21-year-old student Lynne Hartunian was found, along with many other passengers from the plane. More than 10,000 pieces of debris were retrieved, tagged, and entered into a computer tracking system. A Libyan man accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie 34 years ago is in United States custody, Scottish authorities . 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. The FBI has worked tirelessly through the years., Weipz spoke in public recently about Pan Am Flight 103, and there were people in the audience who were shocked when they learned the FBI investigation was still open. 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]. The people of Lockerbie managed the catastrophe with laudable skill. 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]. A Libyan man suspected in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing is now in U.S. custody. U.S. authorities have taken into custody a Libyan man accused of being involved with making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people . (5 minutes) LOCKERBIE, ScotlandThe sky rained fire on a chill December night here in 1988. . Swire and many other UK relatives have never believed in the guilt of the man convicted of the bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Items of baby clothing, which were subsequently proven to have been made in Malta, were thought to have come from the same suitcase. "[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. Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a terrorist bomb on December 21, 1988. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. What Syracuse has done is truly remarkable, Weipz said. Omissions? 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. It looked as though they were asleep, it wasn't obviously injured, and it was just a shock to realise it was a passenger from Pan Am 103. Mum had been so worried about him dying alone in the cold of the Scottish countryside. Sharing information and paying attention to even the smallest detail helped solve the case, he said. [148], On 5 December 2003, Jim Kreindler revealed that his Park Avenue law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US$1million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents. November 1991: Libyans Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah accused. Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi's status as a government employee.[4]. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Some of the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 after it crashed onto the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988. Building relationships, said Marquise, is one of the most fundamental lessons from the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation. Thats one of the things that we do in the FBI, and we do well, is we speak their names. The level of collaboration at the trial between the FBI, Department of Justice, and other federal law enforcement agencies, along with Scottish partnerswho had already set a remarkable example of compassion toward victims in the aftermath of the bombingforged a connection between family members, investigators, and victim advocates that exists to this day. On Sunday, the US Justice Department said that Masud was in US custody. The purchaser was, on Mr Gauci's evidence, a Libyan. Clipper Maid of the Seas approached the corner of the Solway Firth at 19:01, and crossed the coast at 19:02 UTC. We knew then we had to meet them.. 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. Investigators believed then, as they do today, that more co-conspirators were involved in the plot.
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