 The remains of the forward section from Clipper Maid of the Seas on Tundergarth Hill | |
| Bombing | |
|---|---|
| Date | 21 December 1988 |
| Summary | In-flight breakup due to terrorist bombing |
| Site | Lockerbie, Scotland 55°06′56″N 003°21′31″W / 55.11556°N 3.35861°W |
| Total fatalities | 270 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-121 |
| Aircraft name | Clipper Maid of the Seas |
| Operator | Pan American World Airways |
| IATA flight No. | PA103 |
| ICAO flight No. | PAA103 |
| Call sign | CLIPPER 103 |
| Registration | N739PA |
| Flight origin | Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, West Germany |
| 1st stopover | Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom |
| 2nd stopover | John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States |
| Destination | Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Michigan, United States |
| Occupants | 259 |
| Passengers | 243 |
| Crew | 16 |
| Fatalities | 259 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Ground casualties | |
| Ground fatalities | 11 |
Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747 registered N739PA. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing.[1] Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.
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. After protracted negotiations and United Nations sanctions, in 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands. 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. In August 2009, he was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in May 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack.
In 2003, Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims, although he maintained that he had never given the order for the attack.[2] Acceptance of responsibility was part of a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution for sanctions against Libya to be lifted. Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi's status as a government employee.[3]
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,[2] 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.
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 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.[4]
In 2020, US authorities indicted the Tunisia resident and Libyan national Abu Agila Masud, who was 37 years old at the time of the incident,[5] for participating in the bombing. He was taken into custody in December 2022,[6] pleading not guilty in February 2023.[7] A federal trial was set for May 2025.[8]
- ^ "Clipper Maid of the Seas: Remembering those on flight 103". panamair.org. 2007. Archived from the original on 26 March 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2008.
- ^ a b "Colonel Gaddafi 'ordered Lockerbie bombing". BBC News. BBC. 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ "Libya ready to accept responsibility for Lockerbie bombing". The Independent. 13 August 2003. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ Connolly, Kate; Carrell, Severin (20 March 2019). "Lockerbie investigators 'question former Stasi agents'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ "US unveils new charges against the suspect in 1988 Lockerbie bombing". The Guardian. 21 December 2020. Archived from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ "Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody". BBC. 12 December 2022. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
- ^ "Lockerbie bombing suspect pleads not guilty in US court". 8 February 2023. Archived from the original on 20 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ Meighan, Craig (21 December 2023). "US sets date for trial against Lockerbie bombing suspect". STV News. Archived from the original on 22 December 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2024.