Transcript of the proceedings of the Scottish court in the Netherlands 2001, day 86. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the judge. The blast broke the plane into thousands of pieces that landed in an area covering roughly 850 square miles (2,200 square km). [15], On its arrival at Heathrow Terminal 3 on the day of the disaster, the passengers and their luggage (as well as an unaccompanied suitcase which was part of the interline luggage on the feeder flight) were transferred directly to Clipper Maid of the Seas, whose previous flight had originated in Los Angeles and arrived via San Francisco. Their presence gave rise to speculations and conspiracy theories that one or more of them had been targeted.[35]. He became a senior investigating officer on the case and was the person who arrested al-Megrahi and Fhimah. The cargo area has been the site of explosives in past bombings, including that of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. 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. Heres what you need to know about the deadliest terrorist attack to have taken place in the United Kingdom. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to life imprisonment, but Fhimah was acquitted. Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi's status as a government employee.[4]. At this point, the Clipper Maid of the Seas was flying at 31,000 feet (9,400m) on a heading of 316 magnetic, and at a speed of 313kn (580km/h; 360mph) calibrated airspeed. Search instead in. All 270 passengers and crew members on the plane were. 53:52. [32][33] Matthew Gannon, the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was sitting in seat 14J, which is located in the business class (branded as "Clipper Class") cabin. In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing. [Oliver_ FBI's Oliver "Buck" Revell served as Advisor to PCAST]. [161] This play has received the Silver Medal from the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award. Its clear we were considered to be a mischief.. 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. . 270 people were killed, including 11 people in the town. A Lockerbie disaster victims grandchildren gaze reflectively across the quiet land where their granddad died in Britains worst terrorist attack 30 years ago. [154], Syracuse University holds a memorial week every year called "Remembrance Week" to commemorate its 35 lost students. [132], Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya. 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. It then sheared off, up, and backwards to starboard, striking off the number-three engine and landing some distance outside the town, on a hill in Tundergarth. The retired GP said: These two guys asked to meet me. The day of the verdict was January 31, 2001. 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. Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.[72]. Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi was said to be the "third conspirator" behind the downing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. Some wanted to know exactly where their loved ones body had been recovered. And, most devastating of all, there were 259 bodies. He was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009. Both organizations share as much information as possible with the familiesanother lesson the FBI learned from the tragedy. The FBI, the Justice Department, no one really had much of a program of assistance in 1988 when Pan Am 103 happened, Turman said. In December 1988, Franks family were wracked by grief as it became clear he had perished along with 258 other passengers and crew in the explosion on his way home to the US for Christmas on the night of the 21st. It was like a battlefield. The aircraft's elevator- and rudder-control cables had been disrupted and the fuselage pitched downwards and to the left.[24]. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the defence claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, which the judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the prosecution's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. As we have also said, the absence of an explanation as to how the suitcase was taken into the system at Luqa is a major difficulty for the Crown case, but after taking full account of that difficulty, we remain of the view that the primary suitcase began its journey at Luqa. This place is special. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. Investigators believed then, as they do today, that more co-conspirators were involved in the plot. They turned up in a sports car and made me feel quite uneasy. He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London. And its not just for the 35 they lost. [83], On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office, which sought to limit the scope of Megrahi's second appeal to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007. Gaddafi blamed the defeat on French and US "aggression against Libya". [101] Beginning at the age of 22 in 1973, he began working with bombs for the Libyan intelligence service for the next 38 years. December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit via London blows up. Swire and many other UK relatives have never believed in the guilt of the man convicted of the bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. In many ways, the reverberations are still being felt today. The agreement covers 26 lawsuits filed by American citizens against Libya, and three by Libyan citizens in respect of the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 which killed at least 40 people and injured 220. [128][129], On 29 September 1989, President Bush appointed Ann McLaughlin Korologos, former Secretary of Labor, to chair the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) to review and report on aviation security policy in the light of the sabotage of flight PA103. Over three years, investigators from the United States, Britain, Germany and other countries questioned more than 15,000 people in more than 30 countries and collected thousands of pieces of evidence. The Libyan government eventually agreed to pay damages to the families of the victims of the attack. The timer was allegedly traced through its Swiss manufacturer, Mebo, to the Libyan military, and Mebo employee Ulrich Lumpert identified the fragment at al-Megrahi's trial. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. He died on May 20, 2012. [11][13] In 1978, as Clipper Morning Light, it had appeared in "Conquering the Atlantic", the fourth episode of the BBC Television documentary series Diamonds in the Sky, presented by Julian Pettifer.[14]. [113] The result was Gaddafi's lingering animosity against the two countries which led to Libyan support for the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772. [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. What Syracuse has done is truly remarkable, Weipz said. Pan Am flight 103, also called Lockerbie bombing, flight of a passenger airliner operated by Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, after a bomb was detonated. So, there is a headstone with the 11 people whose bodies were not . Documania. The Lockerbie bombing, as it came to be known, took 270 lives that evening of Dec. 21, 1988, killing everyone aboard along with 11 residents in the small Scottish town. The New York-bound Boeing 747, named Maid of the Seas, was passing five miles above the . [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. He claims he was visited by two journalists who were security agents. [20]:44 Due to the extreme flutter, the vertical stabilizer disintegrated, which in turn produced large yawing movements. Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorismwhich Libya said it had already madeand "accepting responsibility for the actions of its officials". [117] On 3 October 2009, Malta was asked to table a UN resolution supporting the petition, which was signed by 20 people including the families of the Lockerbie victims, authors, journalists, professors, politicians and parliamentarians, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 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. Within a week of what Scottish authorities were calling the Lockerbie air disaster, it was determined that Pan Am Flight 103 had been destroyed by a bomb. November 2016. He also made a vow to the families that their sons and daughters will be remembered at Syracuse University so long as any of us shall live and so long as the university shall stand.. They remember all 270 victims. 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. Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was . 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.. 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"[citation needed], "Flight 103" redirects here. 45:47. Mothers and fathers, grandparents, children as young as 2 months old, and college students returning home from a study abroad program lost their lives in what was the largest terrorist attack in American history until 9/11. The colleges attended by some students are identified . Get email updates with the day's biggest stories. Forty minutes into the flight, the plane had reached the coast of Scotland. As many as 25 homes were destroyed. 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. "[131] The statement first came to public attention in the 1994 documentary film The Maltese Double Cross Lockerbie and was published in both The Guardian of 12 November 1994, and a special report from Private Eye magazine entitled Lockerbie, the flight from justice May/June 2001. For Dick Marquise, who had been in charge of the FBIs investigation, and other investigators who worked tirelessly on behalf of the victims, the trials results were decidedly mixed. By Katie Benner and Adam Goldman. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. Forty-six seconds after the bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 detonated, the aircraft's wings hit Sherwood Crescent, close to Mr Giesecke's Park Place home, at 500mph, disintegrating on impact and leaving . [97] Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that people should use the occasion to remember the Lockerbie victims. Weve grown incredibly close to Hugh and Margaret over the years, calling each other, sending Christmas gifts and writing old-fashioned letters. At 75, Richard Granat does not fit the stereotype of a startup entrepreneur. The US State Department maintained that it was not directly involved. [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]. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims." We didnt disclose a great deal of material to victims for fear that it would somehow damage the investigation., The magnitude of this case required new thinking. [1/5] A December 23, 1988 file photo shows Scottish rescue workers and crash investigators search the area around the cockpit of Pan Am flight 103 in a farmer's field east of Lockerbie, Scotland . Contradictory and inaccurate messages undermined the crisis response to the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight . December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit via London blows up. Al Jalil's commentary to the Expressen came during widespread political unrest and protests in Libya calling for the removal of Ghaddafi from power. I find it encouraging, she said, that we are still on their minds, and their presence convinces me of that. Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder on 31 January 2001, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Scotland; his co-defendant, Fhimah, was found not guilty. 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. * On Jan. 31, 2001, a three-judge Scottish court at a former U.S. base in the . Gauci then identified al-Megrahi for the court, stating, "He is the man on this side. The nose cone was briefly held on by a band of metal, but facing aft, like the lid of a can. There would be four groups of two, so that would be eight, in the morning, and it would change at lunchtime, so it would be around 16 volunteers coming in every day to start with, said Elma Pringle. Ten of these students were from other universities and colleges (including but not limited to Colgate University and University of Colorado) with collaborative relationships with Syracuse. The Scottish town of Lockerbie in the aftermath of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988. We knew there was a very serious incident there., Pan Am Flight 103 was flying at an altitude of 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, when a terrorist bomb exploded on board. The work consists of 43 nude statues of the wives and mothers who lost a husband or a child. [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. October 2015: Two more suspects linked to Libya investigated. The cockpit crew was based at JFK.[20]. [105], The motive that is generally attributed to Libya can be traced back to a series of military confrontations with the US Navy that took place in the 1980s in the Gulf of Sidra, the whole of which Libya claimed as its territorial waters. But when the plane dropped out of the sky that night, no one was certain what had happened. Working through the quiet overnight, said Galloway, who is near retirement after a 30-year career in law enforcement, you get a lot of time to thinkjust to see the peoples lives you were looking at, the clothing, the suitcases that used to belong to someone., And while one should never forget that the bombing was caused by an act of terror, you can also see the goodness in the people who have to react, Galloway added. There were a lot of things we looked at with Pan Am 103 that formed the basis for where we went with the Victim Assistance Program in the Bureau., The Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, Inc. group was formed in 1989, shortly after the bombing. "University remembers Flight 103. Hundreds of family members traveled to the Netherlands during the nine-month trial. After a three-year investigation in which the FBI and Scottish authorities worked hand in hand, the British and American governments in November 1991 announced indictments and warrants for the arrests of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah. Dr Jim Swire, 82, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, said: We deserve to know who murdered our loved ones and why it was not prevented.. "[149], In March 2009, it was announced that US lobbying firm, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, received fees of $2million for the work it did from 2006 through 2008 helping the PA103 relatives obtain payment by Libya of the final $2million compensation (out of a total of $10million) that was due to each family.

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