• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence

• Security Menu                     

• Systems
• Industry
• Operations
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Space

Lockerbie Pan Am 103 Bombing

On December 21, 1988 Pan American Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb believed to have been placed on the aircraft by Libyan terrorists in Frankfurt, West Germany. All 259 people on board as well as 11 on the ground were killed. Investigators found that a bomb concealed in a radio-cassette player had been loaded on the plane in Frankfort, Germany.

Pan Am 103, after landing at Heathrow Airport in London, from Frankfurt, took off in route to New York with a final destination of Detroit. The plane, with 189 Americans aboard, exploded 38 minutes into the flight six miles above Lockerbie, Scotland on the English border. This tragedy followed an FAA bulletin issued in mid-November that warned of such a device, and one on December 7 of a possible bomb to be placed on a Pan Am plane in Frankfort.

After Libya was implicated in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, U.N. sanctions were imposed in 1992. U.N. Security Council resolutions passed in 1992 and 1993 obliged Libya to fulfill requirements related to the Pan Am 103 bombing before sanctions could be lifted. Qadhafi initially refused to comply with these requirements, leading to Libya's political and economic isolation for most of the 1990s.

In 1999, Libya fulfilled one of the U.N. Security Council resolutions requirements by surrendering the two Libyans suspected in connection with the bombing for trial before a Scottish court in the Netherlands. In May 2000 the trial of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, two supposed members of the Libyan Intelligence Service began. The decision was made between Scotland, the US, and Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to hold the trial in Holland, but under Scottish law with three Scottish judges presiding. The indictment, due to one of the largest criminal investigations in history, stated that the two men placed a bomb laden case on an Air Malta flight from Malta to Frankfurt, where it was then transferred to Pan Am flight 103. While there was evidence against Qadhafi ordering the bombing, he was not included in the indictment.

On March 14, 2002 Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi lost his appeal on the December 21, 1988 conviction of life imprisonment. He was then transfered to Scotland from Camp Zeist, Netherlands. At that point the only option left to Al-Megrahi was an appeal to Britain's Privy Council, since he had no further right of appeal in the high courts.

In August 2003, Libya fulfilled the remaining U.N. Security Council resolutions requirements, including acceptance of responsibility for the actions of its officials and payment of appropriate compensation to the victims' families. U.N. sanctions were lifted on September 12, 2003. U.S. sanctions against Libya remain in place. The U.S has eased some of the sanctions on Libya. A travel ban imposed 23 years ago has been lifted, and Libya will be invited to establish a diplomatic presence in Washington, but trade sanctions remain in place as of May 2005.