Pan Am Flight 103 (Lockerbie Bombing)

Introduction
Pan Am Flight 103 was a flight from Frankfurt to Detroit, with stops in London and New York City. The aircraft exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland due to a terrorist bomb on board. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of Great Britain.

Pilots
Captain James B. MacQuarrie was captain of the flight and Raymond R. Wagner was the first officer. They both have over 10,000 flying hours, of which more than 4,000 were in the 747.

The Threat
On the 5 of December, 1988, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) received a call from a man with an Arabic accent, and he told them that a Pan Am flight flying from Frankfurt to the United States would be bombed within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organisation.

A major warning was sent out to Pan Am and other carriers to have thorough look through everything. This warning was found at the bottom of a stack of papers in the Frankfurt Airport office.

They also received a warning from the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) days before the accident.

The Crash
Pan Am Flight 103 takes off from London Heathrow Airport. The 747 doesn't have many passengers on-board, only 259 out of the 452 passengers this plane can hold. Most of the people on-board are from the United States, as they are returning home from either Germany or Britain. The town of Lockerbie is down below, and the people who live there don't know of the many planes that fly above them each day.

The plane is now levelling off at 31,000 feet. There is a bomb on-board. The bomb is programmed to explode at the end of a long-delay timer. The bomb was hidden in a suitcase, concealed by some basic clothing. This clothing would only be sold in Malta, meaning the bomber came from there.

Once the bomb goes off, it sends a shock-wave through the plane. The old plane had a weak spot in the ceiling of the aircraft. A hole was torn through the ceiling, sending the plane down to the ground. It separated into the smallest of pieces.

These pieces rain down upon Lockerbie, not doing too much damage but still damaging the homes. In the middle of this, a giant fireball is now coming down. This fireball is actually part of the cabin and explodes when it hits the ground. This explosion and the impact tore a giant crater into the ground, killing 11 people.

Aftermath
The accident to this day holds the title of the worst terrorist attack to happen in Great Britain.

After the event, famous people such as Margret Thatcher (former Prime Minister) visited the site (as seen on the right) to show their sadness to the accident. But the question remained, who did it?

The Bomber
Many clues were taken into account once the investigation was over. The clothes covering up the bomb were from Malta, meaning the bomber most likely lived there or just went there to get the clothes. After finding the only shop to sell these clothes, the person there told the investigators the man had a Libyan accent. They had nearly no evidence of the bomber being Libyan, but there was something that backed this up. There was 4 separate attacks on Libya by US, and this might of been Libya fighting back. So after a little more work (including working out where the timer came from) they became extremely suspicious of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a worker for the Libyan government, who was jailed. And on the 31stof January 2001, he was found guilty of the murder of 270 people and was sentenced to a life in prison. He would eventually go on to die of prostate cancer in 2012.

The Avoidance
As discussed earlier, there were two warnings given that could have helped avoid this. There was a rule that was first introduced due to Air India Flight 182 (which had the exact same fate as Flight 103, a terrorist bomb) when a bag is put onto an aircraft, the passenger carrying the bag must get on. The rule wasn't too serious at the time, but after the warning, Pan Am should have been on high alert, and yet they weren't.

The Charges and The Bankruptcy
After the investigation was truly over, $2.7 billion was given by the Libyan government to help compensate. This was accepted, but Pan Am had to pay as well. After all, they let the bomb on board despite being told that one of their aircraft was going to be bombed. So Pan Am were charged, which put the company that was already in a very tough time when it came to money, into an even worse situation. This, unfortunately, led to the company's bankruptcy. An animation on the right shows how the accident happened.

May those who died rest in peace.