Air Crash Investigation: Pan am Flight 103 | Lockerbie Air Disaster

Panam 103 arrived at London Heathrow Airport from San Francisco. The crew parked the aircraft on stand Kilo 14.

Many of the passengers for this flight had arrived from Frankfurt, on a Boeing 727. The passengers were transferred with their baggage to Pan am 103 which was to operate the scheduled Flight to, Michigan with the stopover at, New York. Passengers from other flights also joined Pan am 103 at Heathrow.

Air Traffic controller cleared Fight 103 to push back and to taxi for runway 27R.

The aircraft operating was a Boeing 747-121. It was the 15th 747 built. It was delivered in February 1970. The aircraft had completed a total of 72,464 flying hours in 16,497 flight cycles.

18.25

Flight 103 started its take-off roll from Heathrow for its destination New York.

The flight was cleared to climb initially to FL120 and Subsequently to FL310.

At 18:56, the aircraft leveled off at FL 310 and was above the borderline between England and Scotland.

19:03
Shanwick Oceanic Control transmitted the aircraft's oceanic clearance but it was silent on the other side.

In Lockerbie, people heard a rumbling sound like thunder which rapidly increased to deafening proportions like the roar of a jet engine under power. The noise seems to come from a meteor-like object which was trailing flame and came down in the north-eastern part of the town.

Two major portions of the wreckage of the aircraft fell on the town of Lockerbie; other large parts, including the flight deck and forward fuselage section, landed in the countryside to the east of the town.

panam 103 passengers

In totality, 270 souls perished. Onboard the aircraft were citizens of 21 countries, including 190 Americans. Among the Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.

On the ground, 11 residents were killed when the burning wings plunged into a neighborhood. Parents, grandparents, children as young as 2 months old, and college students returning home from a study abroad lost their lives.

Investigation

The air crash investigators reconstructed the fuselage. It revealed a 20-inch hole consistent with an explosion in the forward cargo hold. When they examined the baggage containers, it revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening, pitting, and severe damage. This indicated a "high-energy event" that had taken place inside it.

panam 103 disaster

The investigators recovered the Fragments of a Samsonite suitcase in which they believed to have contained the bomb. Together they found parts and pieces of circuit board identified as components of a Toshiba 'Bombeat' RT-SF16, radio cassette player,

FBI and Scottish authorities worked for hand in hand with the help of the British and American governments. In November 1991, they announced warrants for the arrests of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.

The British and American governments charged Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah in the case. Their trial in 2000 was held in a Scottish court on a former U.S. military base in the Netherlands. The court acquitted Fhimah and convicted al-Megrahi in 2001, sentencing him to life in prison. He was released in 2009 when he was believed near death from cancer, but he survived almost three more years.

On December 21, 2020, US Attorney General William Barr announced criminal charges against an alleged bombmaker.

The former Libyan intelligence officer Abu Agela Mas'ud, Kheir Al-Marimi was charged in a criminal complaint. It was because he provided the suitcase with the prepared explosive that was later placed onboard flight 103.