Pan Am Flight 103

Pan Am Flight 103, registered N739PA and named "Clipper Maid of the Seas", was blown up as it flew over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, when 12 to 16 oz (340 to 450 g) of plastic explosive was detonated in its forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. Winds of 100 knots (190 km/h) scattered passengers and debris along an 130 km (81 mile) corridor over an area of 845 square miles. Two hundred and seventy people from 21 countries died, including 11 people on the ground.

Related Topics:
Lockerbie - Scotland - December 21 - 1988 - Plastic explosive - Knots - Square mile

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Known as the Lockerbie bombing and the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK, it became the subject of Britain's largest criminal inquiry, led by its smallest police force. It was widely regarded as an assault on a symbol of the United States, and with 189 of the victims being Americans, it stood as the deadliest attack on American civilians until September 11, 2001.

Related Topics:
The UK - United States - September 11, 2001

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After a three year joint investigation by the Scottish Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for murder were issued on November 13, 1991, against Abdel Basset Ali 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.

Related Topics:
Dumfries and Galloway - Federal Bureau of Investigation - November 13 - 1991 - Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi - Libya - Libyan Arab Airlines - Lamin Khalifah Fhimah - Malta

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United Nations sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on April 5, 1999 to Scottish police in the Netherlands, chosen as a neutral venue. On January 31, 2001, Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was refused on March 14, 2002, and a further appeal to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003. He is serving his sentence in Greenock prison near Glasgow, where he continues to protest his innocence.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Muammar Gaddafi - April 5 - 1999 - Netherlands - January 31 - 2001 - March 14 - 2002 - European Court of Human Rights - Greenock - Glasgow

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