Pan Am Flight 103

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Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan Am's regular Frankfurt-London-New York-Detroit flight. On December 21, 1988, it was the target of an attack that caused the aircraft to explode over the Scottish border town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people.

The attack became known as the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK and simply as Pan Am 103 in the United States. The bombing was widely regarded as an assault on a symbol of the United States and in that country, it was regarded as the worst act of terrorism against that country by until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

PA103A originated at Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, in Germany, for the leg to Heathrow Airport in England. Passengers changed aircraft there and the flight, thereafter called PA103, continued on its journey to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. On the night of the bombing, a Boeing 747-121 (N739PA) with the name Maid of the Seas, the 15th 747 ever built by Boeing and delivered to Pan Am in February 1970, was operating the final London-New York leg of the route.

At 19:03 GMT, 38 minutes into the flight and only minutes after the aircraft had entered Scottish airspace at a cruising altitude of 30,000 ft (9,100 m), the detonation of between 10 and 14 ounces (280-400 grams) of plastic explosive in the forward cargo hold (Section 41) triggered a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft.

The victims

The bombing claimed 270 lives in all. All 259 passengers and crew members died, 189 of them Americans. Another 11 people were killed in Lockerbie when the fuel-laden wings hit the ground and exploded, creating a giant crater in Sherwood Crescent where several houses had stood, and damaging 21 others so badly they had to be demolished. Investigators searching for the left wing, which was never found, concluded it had disappeared in the fireball.

All that remained of the people who had lived in the vaporized houses were thousands of tiny pieces of family photographs, Christmas cards and crockery embedded deep inside the crater. Debris from the aircraft was scattered over an area of 845 sq. miles (2,188 sq. kms) along an 88-mile (142-km) corridor.

The pilot, first officer and one flight attendant were found inside the cockpit where it landed in a field by a tiny church in the Scottish village of Tundergarth. A Scottish public inquiry later heard that the flight attendant was still alive when found by a farmer's wife, but she died before her rescuer could summon help.

Forensic pathologist Dr. William G. Eckert, who examined the autopsy evidence, told Scottish police he believed the pilot and 147 other passengers survived the bomb blast and may have been alive on impact. None of these passengers showed signs of injury from the explosion itself. Although the victims would have lost consciousness because of the lack of oxygen at 30,000 feet, forensic examiners believe they may have regained consciousness as they fell toward the oxygen-rich earth.

The Scottish public inquiry into the disaster heard that a mother was found holding her baby, two friends were found holding hands, and a number of passengers were found clutching crucifixes. Dr. Eckert told Scottish police that distinctive marks on the pilot's thumb suggested he had been hanging onto the yoke of the plane as he descended, and may have been alive when he landed.

Ten passengers were never identified. Eight of these passengers had been assigned seats in the economy section above the wings, and are believed to have been attached to the wing structure as it landed in Sherwood Crescent before exploding.

Among the passengers in the first class and business sections, there was at least one serving Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, Matthew Gannon; an army officer on secondment to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Major Charles McKee; and two bodyguards assigned to one of the men. Major McKee was returning to the U.S. from Beirut where it is believed he was part of an operation trying to find the American hostages being held by the terrorist group Hezbollah.

How the aircraft broke up

Although the on-board explosion was relatively small, punching a 20 sq. inch hole in the side of the 220 ft-long fuselage, the disintegration of the aircraft was rapid. Air accident investigators reported that the nose of the aircraft may have separated from the main section of the fuselage within just three seconds of the bomb being detonated.

The official report of the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch, (see here), reported no evidence of a distress call, though the aircraft's oxygen masks had descended. If the crew responded to what was happening around them, their actions were not recorded because the explosion had damaged the flight's communications center, cutting the flight recorder's power supply.

The nerve center of a 747, from which all the navigation and communication systems are controlled, sits two floors below the cockpit, separated from the forward cargo hold only by a bulkhead wall. Investigators believe the force of the explosion broke through this wall and shook the flight control cables, causing the front section of the fuselage to begin to roll, pitch and yaw. These sudden, violent movements snapped the reinforcing belt that secured the front section to the row of windows on the left side and it began to break away. At the same time, shock waves from the blast that hit the fuselage ricocheted back in the direction of the bomb, meeting pulses still coming from the center of the explosion. This produced Mach stem shock waves, which rebounded from one side of the aircraft to the other, running down the length of the fuselage through the air conditioning ducts and splitting the fuselage open. The front section of the fuselage broke away. Passengers and flight attendants spilled into the freezing night sky.

The main section of the fuselage continued flying forward with some passengers still attached to it, strapped into their seats, until it reached 19,000 feet when its dive became almost vertical.

For several years, investigators wondered whether an insider had been involved in the terrorist plot, because they believed that the relatively small explosion would not have destroyed the plane had the bomb been placed anywhere other than the forward cargo hold. Other passenger jets have landed safely after similar explosions. It was eventually concluded that the terrorists could have not planted the bomb with such precision, and that it was simply a matter of dreadful luck for the passengers that the bomb-laden suitcase ended up where it did.

After PA 103, the FAA recommended that airlines strengthen the bulkhead wall that separates the forward cargo hold from the communications and navigation center, and that flight recorders be installed with their own back-up power supply.

The bomb

The judges at the subsequent trial of the two Libyans accused of planting the bomb accepted Scottish police evidence that the brown, hard-sided Samsonite suitcase containing the explosive had arrived in Frankfurt as unaccompanied baggage on an Air Malta flight, KM180, from Luqa Airport in Malta. From KM180, it was loaded onto PA103A from Frankfurt to London, then transferred between planes again at Heathrow airport for the London-New York leg of the flight.

Investigators calculated that the improvised explosive device (IED) consisted of 10-14 ozs. (280-400 grams) of plastic explosive, possibly Semtex, a battery and a long-delay electronic timing device concealed within a Toshiba radio-cassette recorder, probably a model RT-SF16. Although no plastic explosive was found, traces of PETN and RDX were found on metal fragments on the luggage container believed to contain the IED. PETN and RDX are components of plastic explosive, including Semtex.

British forensic experts identified the timing device from a 0.4 inch (10 millimeter) particle found in Lockerbie, and the CIA provided information about a previous batch of such timers that were found with terrorists in Senegal. The information from the CIA allowed investigators to trace the MST-13 timer to a Swiss manufacturer, Edwin Bollier of MEBO AG in Zurich, Switzerland. It emerged at trial that Bollier had sold 20 such timers to a Libyan intelligence officer days before the bombing. The timers were capable of being set to between one minute and 999 hours.

It is possible the terrorists intended the plane to disappear into the Irish Sea and had timed the IED to be detonated accordingly, but due to heavy winds that night, PA 103 was delayed for 30 minutes before flying north over Scotland, instead of by its usual western route over Ireland. The explosion over land meant that debris from the plane was available to investigators. Hundreds of Scottish police were involved in a fingertip search of the crash site, with the instruction "If it isn't growing and it isn't a rock, pick it up." The painstaking searches paid off. It was the discovery of tiny fragments of clothing with explosive residue blasted deep into the fabric that pointed the Scots in the direction of Libya.

The blue Babygro and the umbrella

British forensic experts determined that fragments of a blue Babygro found in Lockerbie showed traces of explosives that indicated it had been packed inside the brown Samsonite suitcase containing the bomb.

A part of the Babygro's label had survived the explosion. Scottish detectives traced this label to a batch of Babygros that had been delivered to Mary's House, a clothing store in Sliema, Malta.

In August 1989, Scottish detectives flew to Sliema to interview the store owner, Tony Gauci. Gauci recalled that, about two weeks before the bombing, he had sold the Babygro to a man of Libyan appearance, who spoke with a Libyan accent.

Gauci remembered the sale well, because the customer didn't seem to care what he was buying. He bought an old tweed jacket that Gauci had been trying to get rid of for years, and a number of other items, all different styles and sizes.

Gauci remembered something else. Just before the customer left the store, he said, it had started to rain. He had asked, jokingly, whether his Libyan customer wanted to buy an umbrella too. He did.

On a hunch, the detectives paid Gucci for an umbrella identical to the one the Libyan customer had purchased. They took it back to Lockerbie and searched through the dozens of black umbrellas that were found at the crash site. Sure enough, they found one that matched the umbrella Gauci had sold them.

The suspect umbrella was rushed to RAARDE, the government forensic laboratory in England, for examination. Traces of the blue Babygro were found embedded into the umbrella's fabric, indicating that both had been inside the Samonsite suitcase containing the bomb.

Toni Gauci, it seemed, had sold his clothes to the Lockerbie bomber, or to someone close to him. This was the first breakthrough for the Scots. They now had an eye-witness.

Trial in the Scottish Court in the Netherlands

The former head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, Abd al-Basset Ali Mohammad al-Megrahi, and his assisant Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah were indicted in 1991 for their role in the attack. Fhimah had been working in the airport in Malta on December 21, 1988, and Megrahi had been visiting him, having arrived in the country on a forged passport, it was alleged.

In 1998, as several Arab and African countries began to ignore the UN’s Lockerbie-related economic sanctions, the Libyan government conceded to a trial in a neutral country and Colonel Gadaffi agreed to the accused being handed over to Scotland for trial on April 5, 1999.

The neutral venue was in the Netherlands at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands, established 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 governments. The parties finally agreed, and in August 1998, United Nations (UN) sanctions were suspended, though not lifted.

The court site contained a court room, a prison for the accused, and offices for the press and families of the victims. During the trial, the base was guarded by Scottish police officers and prison wardens.

The trial began on May 3, 2000 before three judges, Lords Sutherland, McLean and Coulsfield, without a jury, which had been a Libyan stipulation.

Verdicts were reached on January 31, 2001. Abd al-Basset Ali Mohammad al-Megrahi was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, with a recommendation that he serve at least 20 years. Megrahi did not take the stand in his own defense, which many felt hurt his case, as the court was left with no explanation for his presence in Malta on the day of the bombing, or the fact that he travelled there under an assumed name.

Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was found not guilty and returned home to Libya the next day. An appeal by Megrahi was rejected on March 14, 2002 and he was moved to Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow, Scotland, where he lives in a specially constructed apartment-style cell containing several rooms. The prison supplies him with Arab food. He says he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice and his supporters have labelled him the 271st Lockerbie victim.

The site at Camp Zeist has been decommissioned and returned to the Dutch Government.

Subsequent events

There have been calls for a fresh appeal and for Megrahi to serve his sentence in a Muslim country. A commission from the Organisation of African Unity criticised the basis of Megrahi's conviction, and 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, although the statement lacked an expression of remorse for the lives lost. Some people believe that the acceptance of responsibility is nothing more than a business deal aimed at removing economic sanctions, and is not a true admission of guilt.

On September 12, 2003, the UN ended its 15-year old sanctions against Libya.

On November 24 2003, as required by European Human Rights law, the Scottish High Court set 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 April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London.

His comments were retracted by Gadaffi, under intense and immediate pressure from Washington and London.

Speculation and conspiracy theories

Those who believe Megrahi is innocent have developed a number of conspiracy theories. Some believe that Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal was responsible, though as he was based in Libya for much of the last 20 years, his involvement would not necessarily exonerate Colonel Gadaffi.

Others believe responsibility lies with the PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command), a Damascus-based rejectionist group led by Ahmed Jibril. It is known that this group was active in the Frankfurt area in October 1988, two months before PA103 was attacked. It is also known that they were hiding IEDs inside household electronic equipment, including at least two Toshiba radio-cassette recorders, although the IEDs they built contained barometric triggers, designed to go off when the aircraft reached cruising height. (A barometric trigger on the PA 103 bomb would have caused it to explode when the Air Malta flight reached cruising altitude. A bomb with a reliable timing device, on the other hand, can be flown on several flights before detonating at a pre-set time.)

The information about PFLP-GC activities in Germany is known to Western agencies because one of the group's bomb-makers, Marwan Khreesat, was a Jordanian double-agent, reporting everything the group did back to Jordanian intelligence. The Jordanians, in turn, passed the information to the German police and intelligence officers who had the group under surveillance.

Another conspiracy theory suggests that the CIA was cooperating with Syrian drug dealers who were shipping heroin to the U.S. via PA103. The CIA allegedly protected these suitcases and made sure they were not searched, the theory says, in exchange for intelligence on Arab groups in Syria. But one day, terrorists exchanged the drugs for a bomb.

Another version of the theory is that the CIA knew this exchange had been made, but let it happen, because the CIA protection of the suitcases was a rogue operation, and there were American intelligence officers on PA103 who had found out about it and were on their way home to Washington to tell their superiors.

Much is made of rumors that heroin was allegedly found in the fields around Lockerbie. However, had heroin been switched for a bomb, it would not have arrived in Lockerbie, so the discovery of drugs near the crash site does not support the protected-suitcase theory.

The first version of the heroin story was put forward by Juval Aviv, the owner of Interfor Inc., a private investigation company in New York. Aviv claims to be a former Mossad officer who led the so-called Hand of God team of Israeli assassins that killed several Palestinians believed responsible for the 1972 attack on the Olympic Village. Aviv was employed by Pan Am as a consultant after the bombing and submitted a report to the airline, the so-called Interfor Report, blaming a CIA-protected drugs route. This scenario provided Pan Am with a defense against claims for compensation from relatives, because if the United States government had helped the bomb bypass Pan Am's security, then the airline could not be blamed. However, a court in New York rejected the conclusions of the Interfor Report and Pan Am was held liable.

The protected-suitcase theory was later supported by Lester Coleman, a self-proclaimed former freelance journalist turned minor DEA/DIA (Drug Enforcement Administration/Defence Intelligence Agency) informant in Cyprus, who claimed to have seen one of the PA103 passengers in a DEA office. Coleman subsequently turned his story into a book called ‘’Trail of the Octopus." No evidence has been put forward to support his claims.

Libya, Iran or the Palestinians

What is known is that there were two clear motives for the attack on PA 103. The first was the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1985, during which a little girl Colonel Gadaffi and his wife had adopted was killed. The second was the July 1988 downing in the Gulf, by the USS Vincennes, of Iranair 655, a passenger jet the American warship incorrectly identified as a hostile military aircraft.

It may never be known whether one of these incidents prompted the bombing; or whether it was both, with Libyan and Iranian-paid agents working in concert, or with one group handing the job over to a second group when the Germans rounded up the PFLP-GC members near Frankfurt.

Some CIA officers who worked on the investigation have told reporters they believe the PFLP-GC planned the attack at the behest of Iran, then subcontracted it to Libyan intelligence after October 1988, because the German arrests meant the PFLP-GC was unable to complete the operation. Other investigators believe whoever paid for the bombing arranged two parallel operations intended to ensure that at least one would succeed.

Many Lockerbie-watchers found it revealing that the Americans began to shift the blame to Libya only after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. America needed Syrian support for the [1991]] Gulf War, the theory goes, and therefore did not want to blame a Syrian-based Palestinian terrorist group. For this reason, it is alleged, Colonel Gadaffi became a useful patsy.

This theory is naive in two respects. Although America blamed Libya publicly for the bombing for the first time after August 1990, insiders knew from October 1989 that the focus of the investigation had turned to Libya. Secondly, it would not necessarily have harmed Syria had a Damascus-based terrorist group been held responsible. The PFLP-GC and other rejectionist Palestinian groups are based in Syria only in the sense of having their headquarters and press offices there. There is no evidence or suggestion that the Syrian government would have approved of an attack against the United States in response to the American attacks on Libya or Iran.

Memorials

At Arlington National Cemetery on November 3, 1995 US President Bill Clinton dedicated a memorial to the victims. There are similar memorials at Dryfesdale Cemetery, outside Lockerbie, and at Syracuse University in New York, which lost 35 students in the attack.

See also

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