The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. [143] US State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, called the move a "laudable milestone clearing the way for a continued and expanding US-Libyan partnership. August 2003: UN sanctions lifted against Libya after Tripoli accepts blame and compensates families. Most Americans were awakened to the reality of terrorism on September 11, 2001, but more than a decade earlier, a few days before Christmas in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103, bound to New York from London and carrying mainly U.S. citizens, was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. 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. Its still an open case, and I know the FBI is still working with the Scottish Crown Office. 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]. [40] According to a BBC article on the fire published in 2018, Keegans had gone upstairs to make sure that he had hidden his mother's Christmas present, and recalls, "Immediately after that, there was an enormous explosion". As a result, the United States and the United Nations Security Council imposed economic sanctions against Libya. Back then, these wreckage-littered fields six miles outside the Scottish town bore witness to the horrifying bombing of Pan-Am flight 103 in the skies above. Their bodies were never found. The Boeing 747, known as the Clipper Maid of the Seas, left London Heathrow with 243 passengers and 16 crew members, including 189 Americans. The rear fuselage and landing gear crashed into the Rosebank Crescent neighborhood in the center of town. He became a senior investigating officer on the case and was the person who arrested al-Megrahi and Fhimah. Weipz is also president of the advocacy group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, Inc. Kara Weipz, whose brother, Richard Monetti, was killed on Pan Am Flight 103, stands at a memorial to the victims at Syracuse University. A key suspect in 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, the majority of them Americans, is in U.S. custody, officials confirmed Sunday. Thirty years later, the chancellors promise is being kept. November 2016. 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. The apparent break in the case came after Masud was arrested by Libyan authorities on another case. [20]:44 Due to the extreme flutter, the vertical stabilizer disintegrated, which in turn produced large yawing movements. 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. 25 of 35 students were from Syracuse.". 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. 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. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Fhimah is cleared. We continue to do that.. Authorities accused Libyan nationals Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah of manufacturing the bomb, which they said was made out of Semtex plastic explosives, concealed in a Toshiba cassette recorder, hidden in a Samsonite suitcase and slipped into an Air Malta flight headed from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany. Get email updates with the day's biggest stories. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 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. He claims he was visited by two journalists who were security agents. [108], The US National Security Agency's (NSA) alleged interception of an incriminatory message from Libya to its embassy in East Berlin provided US President Ronald Reagan with the justification for Operation El Dorado Canyon on 15 April 1986, with US Navy and US Marine Corps warplanes launching from three aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Sidra and US Air Force warplanes launching from two British bases[109][110]the first US military strikes from Britain since World War IIagainst Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much The CIA and FBI said the suspects, employed by Libyan Arab Airlines in Malta, were also Libyan intelligence agents. Some passengers may have remained alive briefly after impact; a pathologist's report concluded that at least two of these passengers might have survived if they had been found soon enough.[26][19][27]. 2023 Cable News Network. During what Boyd calls Phase 1 of the investigation--the search for bodies--victims were discovered over a 10-mile radius around Lockerbie. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. [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. 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. He previously served three years in the U.S. Navy and five years in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, where he held the rank of major. The clear inference which we draw from this evidence is that the conception, planning and execution of the plot which led to the planting of the explosive device was of Libyan origin. The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19,000ft (5,800m), when its dive became nearly vertical. [23] The explosion in the aircraft hold was magnified by the uncontrolled decompression of the fuselage - a large difference in pressure between the aircraft's interior and exterior. The bombing kills all 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 jumbo jet and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie. After a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US FBI, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for murder were issued on 13 November 1991 against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta. It was en route to New York. ", "Libyan Parliament calls for urgent investigation into Masud's extradition to US", "Libya Admits Culpability In Crash of Pan Am Plane", Security Council lifts sanctions imposed on Libya after terrorist bombings of Pan Am 103 and UTA 772, Statement by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Speakes on the Gulf of Sidra Incident, "NBC's Mitchell Regurgitates Gaddafi Lies", "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 N54629 Tnr desert", "The best tribute to the 270 victims of Lockerbie is to find out the truth", "Petition to set up public inquiry into Lockerbie", "Petition to UN General Assembly to open Pan Am 103 inquiry", "Malta asked to support demands for UN inquiry on Lockerbie", "Lockerbie families lobby Gordon Brown for public inquiry", "Lockerbie inquiry ruled out by Gordon Brown", "Khadaffi gav order om Lockerbie-attentatet", "Gaddafi accused of ordering Lockerbie bombing", "Qaddafi's Son Is Alive. [142] In October 2008 Libya paid $1.5billion into a fund which will be used to compensate relatives of the, As a result, President Bush signed Executive Order 13477 restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said. Lockerbie bomb victims relatives say their fight for justice goes on after claims they were bugged by the British security services. We had to have another look at ourselves and decide we are not simply dealing with people from Scotland, from the United Kingdom, McCulloch said. 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. Investigations were soon launched in the United . Then as now, the goal is to hold everyone involved responsible for the crime and to bring justice to the families of the victims. Did you encounter any technical issues? Scores of bodies fell on a golf course near Mount Tilla . 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. One of the newly released documents is a letter from the Foreign Office in 1989. There were hundreds of passengers brought into the town hall. Ruined houses in the town of Lockerbie after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York in 1988. At the 20th anniversary service at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, former FBI Director Robert Mueller greeted Scottish and U.S. investigators who worked on the investigation. Examination of the baggage containers revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening, pitting, and severe damage, indicating a "high-energy event" had taken place inside it. [140], Following discussions in London in May 2008, US and Libyan officials agreed to start negotiations to resolve all outstanding bilateral compensation claims, including those relating to UTA Flight 772, the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing and Pan Am Flight 103. 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. Investigators believed then, as they do today, that more co-conspirators were involved in the plot. The retired GP said: These two guys asked to meet me. After 30 years, some of the founding members of the family group have died, others have grown old. 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. I find it encouraging, she said, that we are still on their minds, and their presence convinces me of that. 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. [168], The bombing of Flight 103 has been depicted in many documentaries, such as Air Crash Investigation and the BBC. Bissett. 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. The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 was concealed in a cassette recorder and packed inside a suitcase that was loaded onto a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany, with no accompanying passenger. On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. 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. Inside each sculpture there is a personal memento of the victim. When you consider that some of the most critical exhibits, or productions, of the case were found 80 miles from Lockerbie, Cossar said, it shows you the scale of the search., A crime scene for me was normally a house or a room or a field with a person lying in it, said Bell, whose sector included the hard-hit Rosebank neighborhood. Had his parents' bodies been recovered, the entire family would be buried there together. They turned up in a sports car and made me feel quite uneasy. Karen Gass was 26 years old at the time. These were considered by a judge sitting in private who decided to grant Megrahi leave to appeal. 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. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. "[20]:16, All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed, as were 11 residents of Lockerbie on the ground. "[86], On 25 July 2009, Megrahi applied to be released from jail on compassionate grounds. 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. The trial began on May 3, 2000. Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi's status as a government employee.[4]. File photo from December 22, 1988 shows rescue personnel carrying a body . A flight attendant was found alive by a farmer's wife, but died before help could be summoned. 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. Hed taken off his jacket and removed his shoes, like he always did when he was travelling by plane. [120] On 1 November 2009, it was reported that Gordon Brown had ruled out a public inquiry into Lockerbie, saying in response to Dr Swire's letter: "I understand your desire to understand the events surrounding the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 but I do not think it would be appropriate for the UK government to open an inquiry of this sort." In 1991, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was the assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, and he was in charge of the Lockerbie investigation. The wreckage from Pan Am Flight 103 that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland December 21, 1988. On scope, the aircraft showed transponder code, or "squawk", 0357 and flight level 310. Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a terrorist bomb on December 21, 1988. During the First Libyan Civil War in 2011, former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil claimed that the Libyan leader had personally ordered the bombing,[3] while investigators have long believed that Megrahi did not act alone, and have been reported as questioning retired Stasi agents about a possible role in the attack. 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. A Warner Bros. Fhimah was acquitted. At 75, Richard Granat does not fit the stereotype of a startup entrepreneur. "[51], In December 2013, the original prime suspects in the bombing were revealed to have been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), a Syria-based group led by Ahmed Jibril. "It was a young child under the age of five. It was three years before Franks widow Mary Lou and her family discovered the Connells moving vigil when they received a phone call in 1991 from another family whose loved one was also found on the farmland. Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991. Now, in their verdant peacefulness, they tell the story of a remarkable transatlantic friendship that blossomed out of a terrifying nightmare. People who lived . We wanted to do justice by these families.. Lockerbie bombing suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi appeared in federal court in Washington, DC, on Monday, December 12. Victoria Cummock's husband was among the 259 passengers who died after a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, just north of the England-Scotland border. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Some relatives of the dead, including Lockerbie campaigner Jim Swire, believe the bomb was planted at Heathrow Airport, and not sent via feeder flights from Malta, as per the US and UK governments. A deep gash in the ground next to destroyed houses caused by the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 through Lockerbie in December 1988. . . Some wanted to know exactly where their loved ones body had been recovered. Thirty years ago, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 sent a shock wave around the world. Detectives investigating the Lockerbie disaster revealed details yesterday of the painstaking investigation to find those responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. . The same source claims that, following this, "the shaking stopped and to his surprise he was uninjured". Their son witnessed a fireball engulfing his home from a neighbour's garage, where he had been repairing his sister's bicycle. 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. Both organizations share as much information as possible with the familiesanother lesson the FBI learned from the tragedy. 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. The lifeless bodies of Pan Am Flight 103's crew and more than a dozen first class passengers lay almost intact amid the devastation of the downed plane. As Megrahi had only been in Malta on 7 December, that date was assumed to be the purchase date. The cabin crew was based at Heathrow and lived in the London area or commuted from around Europe. Both of the accused chose not to give evidence in court. Stobbs immediately made his way to Lockerbie and then to Sherwood Crescent. Another 11 people died when the wreckage fell onto the Scottish town which gave the atrocity its name. 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. 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. I look forward to hearing your comments both to our group's letter and to the contents of this one. 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. "35 scholarships honor Lockerbie crash victims". When, however, the evidence regarding the clothing, the purchaser, and the timer is taken with the evidence that an unaccompanied bag was taken from KM180 to PA103A, the inference that that was the primary suitcase becomes, in our view, irresistible. At the time he was in custody in Libya. Megrahi was released on licence, so was obliged to remain in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council. Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi refused to turn over the two suspects. DUMFRIES, Scotland (AP) _ Two passengers might have survived the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 had they received the best medical care immediately, a Scottish pathologist testified Wednesday. Part of the main memorial stone to the victims of the Pan Am flight 103 bombing in the garden of remembrance at Dryfesdale Cemetery, near Lockerbie, Scotland, Dec. 20, 2008. [42], The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the US government and the State Department cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. SUNY Oswego also gives out scholarships in memorial of Colleen Brunner to a student who is studying abroad. Fhimah was found not guilty. He was the youngest officer on duty at Lockerbie, Pan Am 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board. [63], Megrahi served just over 10 years of his sentence (beginning 5 April 1999),[64] first in Barlinnie prison, Glasgow, and later in Greenock prison, Renfrewshire, throughout which time he maintained that he was innocent of the charges against him. [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. The documents are understood to relate to the Mebo MST-13 timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb. Falling wreckage destroyed 21 houses and killed an additional 11 people on the ground. At the time Ciulla was an executive working in the U.K. for Chase Manhattan Bank. A last treasured picture of Laurie Ciulla and her father Frank, who died in the Lockerbie disaster, Five of Frank's grandchildren at the fields where he was found, The grandchildren say they feel connected to Frank when they visit the place he was found, Farmer Hugh Connell discovered Frank six miles from Lockerbie still strapped to his seat, Police guard the wreckage of the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988, Jim Swire and John Mosey say they will fight for justice. "Until we heard their story, I thought my dad had possibly had a fiery death, but he was relatively unmarked when he was found. Ive watched many Pan Am 103 families from the vantage point of almost 30 years, being able to see how they've managed, how they've coped, how they've suffered, but also how they've been able to bring meaning to a meaningless, senseless tragedy. Rescue . This date is in doubt, as Gauci had testified that Malta's Christmas lights had not been on when the clothes had been purchased; the lights were later found to have been switched on on 6 December. All 259 on board die, and 11 on ground. [18][19] Comparison of the CVR to the radar returns showed that, eight seconds after the explosion, the wreckage had a 1-nautical-mile (1.9km) spread. We anticipate that, as often happens, many groups will seek to claim credit. 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. 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. [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. 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. 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.
