We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Investigators from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded that no emergency procedures had been started in the cockpit. Keegans' mother was also unharmed, having been shielded from debris by a refrigerator-freezer. Jeannine Boulanger's daughter Nicole was 21 when she was killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Karen Gass was 26 years old at the time. The Scottish court agreed, allowing a live feed of the trial to two sites in the United Kingdomone in Scotland and one in Londonand a delayed, taped feed broadcast to locations in New York and Washington, D.C. Dad was cremated so we dont have a grave or marker to visit. [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]. [93], Allegations have been made that the UK government and BP sought Al-Megrahi's release as part of a trade deal with Libya. The nose cone was briefly held on by a band of metal, but facing aft, like the lid of a can. All 259 people on board were killed, and 11 individuals on the ground also died. [34] A group of US intelligence specialists was on board the flight. 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. terrorist bombing, over Lockerbie, Scotland, United Kingdom [1988]. 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]. 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. Lord Sutherland, sitting with two other judges, listened as Mr Topp described how at 7.02pm he first noticed a radar abnormality with Pan Am flight 103. In addition to the families of the victims, there were 50 senior Pan Am pilots and military veterans who were uniquely impacted by this bombing. His survival beyond the approximate "three-month" prognosis generated some controversy. Tests were carried out on the bodies of 233 of the victims. For the families who lost loved ones; for the Scottish police officers, firefighters, and volunteers who responded to an unprecedented disaster; for investigators and prosecutors who dedicated years of effort to the case; and for the residents of Lockerbie, there is no forgetting December 21, 1988. 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. 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. In 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands, after protracted negotiations and UN sanctions. Its still an open case, and I know the FBI is still working with the Scottish Crown Office. Five years later, on December 21, 2020,US Attorney General William Barr announced criminal charges against former Libyan intelligence officer Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi in relation to the Lockerbie attack. I left my office that night, he said, and I didn't get back there for three years., From the outset, the Scottish police treated the disaster as a crime scene and preserved everything that might be evidence. [30][31], Aboard the flight were U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Special Agents Daniel Emmett O'Connor and Ronald Albert Lariviere. Lockerbie is changed. [150], 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. It really wasnt until the two Libyans were handed over for trial that the plight of the families came back up. "[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. Airlines bent over backwards to book people on overnight flights. It feels like coming home.. 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. The trigger for the explosion was an MST-13 timer of the single solder mask variety. Suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who is in custody at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center, is seen in this December photograph. [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. The flight was in route from Heathrow Airport London to New York City. The family of Frank Ciulla, one of 259 flight passengers who died when Pan-Am flight 103 was bombed, has spoken of the friendship they've built with the family that found him. 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. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims." 2023 Getty Images. All were originally hired by Pan Am and seniority ranged from 9 months to 28 years. Two alerts were released shortly before the bombing. 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. So, there is a headstone with the 11 people whose bodies were not . 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. 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 American peopleand our adversariesneed to know that we dont give up.. Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 explodes 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. [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. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. 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. Thousands of articles of clothing and other personal effects were held in a warehouse known as the property store. Working in shifts, it would take the laundry ladies more than a year to clean everything. 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 BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Targets specified are Pan Am Airlines and US military bases.' The night of the disaster, Smith was at home with his father in Sherwood Crescent, settled in for what was supposed to be a quiet evening. . 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. 'To hide it, he (Khadafy) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland,' Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying."[148]. We very much had a tradition where the court building was sacrosanct, McCulloch said. "[20]:16, All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed, as were 11 residents of Lockerbie on the ground. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. This had never been done in a Scottish court, said Tom McCulloch, who was a police officer with the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary when the Lockerbie air disaster occurred. They were mostly American, many were British, but they were also from the Philippines, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Canada, all over. Like many of his colleagues, the case consumed every minute of his professional life. A terrorist bomb destroyed the airliner on 21 December, 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board. Looking back and acting forward, thats our motto, said Katie Berrell, a Remembrance Scholar who represents her uncle. Stobbs immediately made his way to Lockerbie and then to Sherwood Crescent. Afterward, United States and British investigators found fragments of a circuit board and a timer, and ruled that a bomb, not mechanical failure, caused the explosion. 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. Theres no other place we feel as connected to him as on the farm. Instead, the judges announced on January 30 that the verdict would be read the next day at 11 a.m. Turman raced out of the courtroom. 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. 2 commission seat . [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. Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody. "Some families want cash, others say it is blood money", said a State Department official. The other man, Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. In all, 270 souls perished. 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. [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. Their son witnessed a fireball engulfing his home from a neighbour's garage, where he had been repairing his sister's bicycle. Hugh said he was still strapped in his seat and had his sleeves rolled up. 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. Bakhmut attacks still being repelled, says Ukraine, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Mother who killed her five children euthanised, Alex Murdaugh jailed for life for double murder, Zoom boss Greg Tomb fired without cause, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Spencer Matthews looks for brother's body on Everest. This has always been regarded as a joint investigation with our FBI colleagues, said Stuart Cossar, the Police Scotland investigator. Updates? People who lived . Another theory suggests the CIA prevented the suitcase containing the bomb from being searched. This place is special. [3] Acceptance of responsibility was part of a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution for sanctions against Libya to be lifted. A further US$2million 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$540million in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland through which the earlier US$2.16billion compensation for the victims' families had been paid. It was en route to New York. Thirty years ago, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 sent a shock wave around the world. After hospital treatment ended, he returned to his family home. Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. 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 . Many of their bodies were found at Rosebank Crescent, .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}12mi (0.8km) from Sherwood Crescent. As many as 25 homes were destroyed. Both Pan Am and TWA routinely changed the type of aircraft operating different legs of a flight. And, most devastating of all, there were 259 bodies. Katz, Samuel M. "Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the manhunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists", 2002. Al-Megrahi later sent to jail in Glasgow. [152], 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. [citation needed], 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. The 259 people on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 are killed, along with . 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. Air traffic control tried to make contact with the flight, with no response. 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. One such incident created an explosion that witnesses likened to a mushroom cloud, and left a crater approximately 40 feet deep where, moments before, residential homes had stood in the town of Lockerbie, the agent said in the affadavit. On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103, en route from London's Heathrow Airport to New York, exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground . [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. * On Jan. 31, 2001, a three-judge Scottish court at a former U.S. base in the . Rescue . 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. They seemed satisfied with what I said, as if I didnt know as much as they feared., UN inspector Dr Hans Koechler, an independent observer at Abdelbaset al-Megrahis trial, said: I had similar experiences after my first report on the Lockerbie trial in 2001.. Of the 270 total fatalities, 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. There again, I find that very encouraging 30 years hence.. [114], 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. 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. For many, including 35 students from Syracuse University who had been studying abroad, it was a much-anticipated homecoming, a reunion with family and friends in time for the holidays. It was like it was made of butter, and it was dripping.. 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]. 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. Although the students remained silent during the ceremony, many cried and hugged one another as the 35 minutes concluded. The bodies of Captain MacQuarrie, his copilot and the flight engineer were found still strapped into their seats. [55], 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. There was not an emergency plan as such at the time, said Stuart Cossar, a Police Scotland detective inspector who until his recent retirement was the deputy senior investigating officer for the ongoing investigation. 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. [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. 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: 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. 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. 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. It offered us some comfort to know my fathers body had been looked after, to hope that he had lost consciousness and that his experience of what happened to him was minimal. [122], 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. People were turning up for duty that had just finished a 10-hour shift but were prepared to come back out and work again right through the night., Harry Bell was a 42-year-old detective stationed near Glasgow, more than an hour away from Lockerbie. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. [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. What are the grounds for compassionate leave from prison? The FBI has been a constant presence, said Mary Kay Stratis, a New Jersey resident who lost her husband, Elia, on Pan Am Flight 103 and who is board chair of the victims group. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton called for Al-Megrahi to be extradited. 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. Listen to article. [156][157] The "Remembrance Scholarships" are among the highest honors a Syracuse undergraduate can receive. There are so many things we do now that are linked to lessons learned from Pan Am 103, Turman said. No distress call was recorded; a 180-millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft's communications center. Im quite proud of the Lockerbie people, actually., A month after the Pan Am Flight 103 attack, Syracuse University held a memorial service to honor its dead. Anything recovered was meticulously cataloged. We are dealing with people from all over the world who dont understand the Scottish legal system. He was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009. The rear fuselage and landing gear crashed into the Rosebank Crescent neighborhood in the center of town. 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.[2]. This year marks the 33rd anniversary . As they do every year on the anniversary of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, family members, along with investigators, prosecutors, and officials from Scotland, the FBI, and the Department of Justice, mark the occasion at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. In October 2008 it was announced that Megrahi was suffering from terminal cancer, and in August 2009, he was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. [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. Dr Swire, who became the public face of families fight for justice, said similar things had happened to him.
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