Online Encyclopedia
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 "PA103" was a regularly scheduled Pan Am flight, which flew from Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany, to Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom, then to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, United States.
The Pan Am Flight 103 disaster, also known in Britain as the Lockerbie disaster or the Lockerbie air disaster, was the destruction of the airplane flying this route, via the explosion of a bomb on board the airplane travelling on the London to New York leg on the evening of December 21, 1988. 270 people died in the bombing; everyone on board was killed, as well as 11 people on the ground. Until the September 11, 2001 attacks, the bombing of Flight 103 was the worst act of terorrism against the United States. Of the 270 killed, 189 were Americans. The airplane was N739PA, the Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121.
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Theories on how the bomb was smuggled on board
It is unknown how the bomb made its way onto the airplane. One theory states that it may have been a "proxy-bomb", which would have been checked in by a passenger on the flight. The carrier may have been carrying a "gift" from a conspirator, or the carrier may have been a "mule", who knowingly smuggles something but is tricked into thinking that the object he or she is smuggling is something else, e.g. diamonds or illegal drugs.
Another theory speculates that it was an unaccompanied device that was checked in by another person who said that he wanted his baggage to go on a different flight.
Another theory states that it would have been smuggled airside and slipped into a container of luggage bound for the flight. In this case, the conspirator would have had an airside security pass and the luggage would have been tagged for Flight 103.
The bomb
The bomb was a 312 gram Semtex-H bomb. The amount of Semtex was equivalent to about six hand grenades. The bomb was powered by one large battery.
The bomb was triggered by a barometric trigger set to 8,000 feet of altitude. The sensor came from an aneroid barometer and started a timer set at approximately four hours. The device was concealed inside the cassette-play motor of a Toshiba portable radio and cassette player inside a Samsonite suitcase. The bomb had been loaded into the forward cargo compartment in Frankfurt.
One theory on the reason the timing was set to four hours is that this timing would have set the bomb to explode when the plane was over the Atlantic Ocean. If this had happened, the plane would have vanished over the ocean, so that nobody but the conspirators would know exactly what happened. The plane was one hour behind schedule, so the bomb exploded earlier in its flight.
Explosion
38 minutes into the flight to New York, at 1903 local time, the bomb exploded in the aircraft's forward cargo hold. The blast tore a large hole in the fuselage and cabin floor, with ejected debris striking the tail planes. The forward fuselage and flight deck area separated from the main body as the aircraft fell nose down. The nose section (Section 41) impacted the No.3 engine, knocking it off its pylon. The remainder of the aircraft disintegrated while it was descending nearly vertically from 19,000ft to 9,000ft. The 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed almost instantaneously.
Much of the aircraft landed on Rosebank Terrace and Sherwood Crescent in the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, causing a massive fire in which 11 local residents were killed. Debris and bodies were scattered over a large area.
Speculation and conspiracy theories
It remains somewhat unclear both who was responsible, and the motives for the attack, despite the conviction of one suspect. Some believe terrorists connected with Abu Nidal were responsible. The United Kingdom and American governments publicly blamed the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian terrorist group backed by Syria, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Iran Air Flight 655. Some find significance in suspicion shifting from Syria to Libya only and immediately after the former gave its support to the 1991 Gulf War while the latter refused it.[1] Naturally, there were conspiracy theories too. One popular conspiracy theory suggests that the bombing was done by a group of rogue CIA agents trying to cover up their involvement with a Syrian drug and arms smuggle operation. According to the conspiracy theory, a group of CIA agents were investigating CIA involvement in the operation and had uncovered evidence of the rogue operation and were on their way home to report on it. Thus it is alleged that the rogue agents planted a bomb on board to kill the CIA agents before they reached the United States.[2]
Investigation
On February 16, 1989 investigators in Lockerbie announced that the cause of the crash was found to be a bomb inside the radio inside the suitcase.
A British investigation concluded on November 14, 1991 that two Libyans, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a senior officer in Libya's intelligence service, and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, were responsible, and they were charged with murder and with conspiracy to destroy an aircraft and to murder its occupants. The indictment stated that the two, in Malta, placed the suitcase on an Air Malta flight destined for Frankfurt, and had tagged the suitcase so that it would then be carried on Flight 103 from Frankfurt onward. It alleged that the Libyan Intelligence Services had provided the electronic timers, plastic explosives, and even the cassette players to the two and to other agents.
Much needed to be decided about how the two could possibly be tried. (Libya had not been on friendly terms with these two nations since the 1986 bombardment of Tripoli by American planes based in Britain.) Libya refused to hand over the two suspects, resulting in UN sanctions being imposed beginning in 1992.
Trial in the Scottish Court in the Netherlands
In 1998, as several countries started to ignore the sanctions, the Libyan government conceded to a trial in a "neutral" country. The solution was to try the men in the Netherlands, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands in the former United States Air Force base at Camp Zeist. The area was declared sovereign territory of Scotland governed by Scots Law under a treaty signed by the UK and Dutch Government|Dutch governments. The parties finally agreed, and in August 1998 the sanctions were suspended.
The Court site contained a court room, prison for the accused and offices for press and families of the victims. During the trial the base was guarded by Scottish Police Officers and Prison Wardens.
The two suspects were handed over on April 5, 1999, the trial began on May 3, 2000 and a verdict was reached on January 31, 2001. The trial was overseen by three judges, Lords Sutherland, McLean and Coulsfield. There was no jury.
Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, with a recommendation that he serve at least 20 years. Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was found not guilty; the next day he returned home to Libya. Al Megrahi appealed against the verdict, but this was rejected on March 14, 2002 and he was moved to Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow, Scotland. The site at Camp Zeist was then decommisioned and returned to the Dutch Government.
Subsequent events
There have been calls for a fresh appeal, and for Al Megrahi to serve his sentence in a Muslim country. A commission from the Organisation of African Unity criticised the basis of Al Megrahi's conviction. In June 2002 Nelson Mandela showed his sympathy by visiting him in prison.
In October 2002 it was reported that the Libyan government had made a compensation offer of $2.7 billion, about $10 million per victim. Then on August 15, 2003 Libya formally accepted responsibility for the bombing, but the statement consisted of general language that many people felt lacked an expression of remorse for the lives lost. Some people have also charged that the acceptance is a business deal aimed at removing economic sanctions and not a true admission of guilt.
On September 12, 2003, the United Nations ended the 15-year old sanctions against Libya. The sanctions were lifted because of the above reparations.
On 24 November 2003, as required by European Human Rights law, the Scottish High Court set Al-Megrahi's tariff (the length of time he must serve before becoming eligible for parole) at 27 years, backdated to his detention in 1999. Scotland's Lord Advocate Colin Boyd lodged an appeal over the sentence after he was approached by the families of American victims, claiming the sentence was 'too lenient'.
On 24 February 2004, Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem stated in an interview broadcast by BBC Radio 4 that his country had only paid the compensation as a "price for peace" and to secure the lifting of UN sanctions. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said "I agree with that". He also said there was no evidence to link his country with the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher in London.
His comments were retracted by Gadaffi, under intense and immediate pressure from Washington and London.
At Arlington National Cemetery on November 3, 1995 US President Bill Clinton dedicated a memorial to the victims of the event. There are similar memorials at Dryfesdale Cemetery, outside Lockerbie, and at Syracuse University in New York, which lost 35 students in the blast.
Further reading
- John Ashton and Ian Ferguson Cover-up of Convenience: the hidden scandal of Lockerbie ISBN 1840183896 (WSWS review)
See also
- List of terrorist incidents
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- UTA Flight UT-772
External links
- A website with further information on the disaster
- BBC in-depth pages on the trial
- BBC report: Lessons from Lockerbie, ten years later
- Air Accident Investigation Board report
- Aviation Safety Network summary report
- The Lockerbie Trial - transcripts, images and links to related resources
- Book - The Plane Truth - A private investigators story citing evidence for mechanical failure, not terrorism.