flight 103 lockerbie bodies in seats
Kathryn Turman, assistant director of the FBIs Victim Services Division, at the time headed the Office for Victims of Crime at the Department of Justice and was asked to create an assistance plan for families of the victims during the trial. The Scots provided transportation from the airport, and Dutch authorities quickly ushered a couple hundred family members through customs, many leaving their baggage behind in the rush. Colin Dorrance was on duty outside the town hall when a farmer drove down from the hills in a pick-up truck with debris from Pan Am 103 and, placed in the front seat, the body of a young girl. . A flight attendant was found alive by a farmer's wife, but died before help could be summoned. According to a CIA analysis dated 22 December 1988, several groups were quick to claim responsibility in telephone calls in the United States and Europe: The list's author noted, "We consider the claims from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as the most credible one received so far," but the analysis concluded, "We cannot assign responsibility for this tragedy to any terrorist group at this time. Yet the sample he was asked to identify at the trial was a green 9-ply circuit board that Mebo had indeed supplied to Libya. It said activities of victims relatives would need careful watching. PA103 was bookable as either a single FrankfurtNew York or a FrankfurtDetroit itinerary, though a scheduled change of aircraft took place in London's Heathrow Airport. The blast broke the plane into thousands of pieces that landed in an area covering roughly 850 square miles (2,200 square km). Transcript of the trial of the Scottish court at Camp Zeist 2000, p. 59. [citation needed], Patrick Keegans, Lockerbie's Roman Catholic priest, was preparing to visit friends around 7:00 that evening with his mother, having recently been appointed a parish priest of the town. He also made a vow to the families that their sons and daughters will be remembered at Syracuse University so long as any of us shall live and so long as the university shall stand.. My task was to figure out how to support 270 families through a trial in another country, she said. The bodies of Captain MacQuarrie, his copilot and the flight engineer were found still strapped into their seats. News4's Derrick Ward reports about what that means for loved ones of some of the local victims. "There's just a sense of peace, a sense of conclusion to it. We didnt disclose a great deal of material to victims for fear that it would somehow damage the investigation., The magnitude of this case required new thinking. [151], There are several private and public memorials to the PA103 victims. Authorities accused Libyan nationals Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah of manufacturing the bomb, which they said was made out of Semtex plastic explosives, concealed in a Toshiba cassette recorder, hidden in a Samsonite suitcase and slipped into an Air Malta flight headed from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany. [155] The university also awards university tuition fees to two students from Lockerbie Academy each year, in the form of its Lockerbie scholarship. The signatories considered that a UN inquiry could help remove "many of the deep misgivings which persist in lingering over this tragedy" and could also eliminate Malta from this terrorist act. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch reassembled a large part of the fuselage to aid with the investigation; this has been retained as evidence and stored in a hangar at Farnborough Airport since the bombing. On 20 December 1988, Swire's 23-year-old daughter Flora, who wanted to fly to the United States to spend Christmas with her American boyfriend, had little difficulty in booking a seat on the next day's half-empty transatlantic Pan Am Flight 103.Flora died when it crashed at the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 including 11 on the ground.. Hugh struggled to get across the field and had to take the car and were all looking older, but it was important we made that connection again. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. There, on a hilltop next to a memorial cairn constructed of 270 stonesone for each of the victims and a permanent reminder of the devastation caused by terrorismthe names of the dead will be spoken. In total, 4 million pieces of wreckage were collected and registered on computer files. A substantial quantity of such timers had been supplied to Libya. Bryony Owen and her mum Yvonne both died in the bombing, Colin Dorrance pictured now and during his earlier days in the force. [55], The initial investigation into the crash site by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary involved many helicopter surveys, satellite imaging, and a search of the area by police and soldiers. A Lockerbie disaster victims grandchildren gaze reflectively across the quiet land where their granddad died in Britains worst terrorist attack 30 years ago. The plane had reached a height of approximately 31,000 feet (9,500 metres) and was preparing for the oceanic portion of the flight when a timer-activated bomb detonated. Speaking after he arrived at Edinburgh Castle, Colin said: "I was thinking about Bryony today. And its still happening.. The US Defense Intelligence Agency alleges that Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur (Ayatollah Mohtashemi), a member of the Iranian government, paid US$10million for the bombing: Ayatollah Mohtashemi: () and was the one who paid the same amount to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the 310.[127]. The trial of Megrahi and Fhimah began on May 3, 2000, and ended on January 31, 2001. The Libyan government claimed the air strikes killed Hana Gaddafi, a daughter Gaddafi claimed he adopted (her reported age has varied between 15 months and seven years). One of the newly released documents is a letter from the Foreign Office in 1989. At the 20th anniversary service at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, former FBI Director Robert Mueller greeted Scottish and U.S. investigators who worked on the investigation. The aircraft did not acknowledge this message. On 14 March 2002, Lord Cullen took less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Judiciary. I don't know if many of us could have survived if we didn't have each other, said Glenn Johnson, a Pennsylvania resident whose 21-year-old daughter, Beth Ann, was killed in the bombing. Others sought the comfort of the peaceful memorials erected to honor the victims. We knew there was a very serious incident there., Pan Am Flight 103 was flying at an altitude of 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, when a terrorist bomb exploded on board. 3 Steve was one of the first . It was 11 years after the bombing. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said, "I agree with that." The FBI has been a constant presence, said Mary Kay Stratis, a New Jersey resident who lost her husband, Elia, on Pan Am Flight 103 and who is board chair of the victims group. William Taylor QC, leading the defence, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. Thirty years later, the chancellors promise is being kept. "It was a young child under the age of five. Sharing information and paying attention to even the smallest detail helped solve the case, he said. They believed he must have died horrifically in the appalling devastation of the main fuselage crash site in Lockerbie where most of the passengers were found. Two alerts were released shortly before the bombing. Ruined houses in the town of Lockerbie after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York in 1988. Dark Elegy is the work of sculptor Suse Lowenstein of Long Island, whose son Alexander, then 21, was a passenger on the flight. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) _ The pilot and at least 147 other victims of the Lockerbie disaster may have survived the bomb blast that ripped the plane apart at 31,000 feet and died when they hit the ground, a forensic pathologist said. Pan Am Flight 103. At 75, Richard Granat does not fit the stereotype of a startup entrepreneur. Im quite proud of the Lockerbie people, actually., A month after the Pan Am Flight 103 attack, Syracuse University held a memorial service to honor its dead. Lockerbie bombing suspect to make first court appearance on Monday in Washington. In July 2010 an investigation spurred by U.S. senators revealed that oil company BP had lobbied for a prisoner transfer agreement between the United Kingdom and Libya. Dr Swire, who became the public face of families fight for justice, said similar things had happened to him. The New York-bound Boeing 747, named Maid of the Seas, was passing five miles above the . The unaccompanied bag is believed to have been transferred to a Pan Am flight to London and then to Flight 103. [11][13] In 1978, as Clipper Morning Light, it had appeared in "Conquering the Atlantic", the fourth episode of the BBC Television documentary series Diamonds in the Sky, presented by Julian Pettifer.[14]. Also aboard was Irish Olympic sailor Peter Dix[29] and rock musician Paul Jeffreys and his wife. Six of the 13 cabin crew members became naturalized US citizens while working for Pan Am. Terrorism impacts all kinds of people, and its very personal and long lasting, said Kathryn Turman, the FBIs Victim Services Division assistant director. The protests were part of a massive wave of unprecedented uprisings across the Arab world in: Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt, where Egyptian protesters effectively forced the removal of long-term ruler, Hosni Mubarak, from office. [159], At Cornell University funds from the Libyan payment were used to establish a memorial professorship in honor of student Kenneth J. Of the 270 total fatalities, 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. Updates? ", Cyclists in transatlantic Lockerbie tribute, Lockerbie bomber conviction to be reviewed, Brooke and Timmi prepare for world's greatest dog show, Man brandished knife during disturbance in Borders, court hears, John Lamont takes part in Teal Heroes event at Westminster, Scottish post office which is oldest in the world up for sale with its own cottage, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. [58] Gauci was shown the same magazine during his testimony at al-Megrahi's trial and asked if he had identified the photograph in April 1999 as being the person who purchased the clothing; he was then asked if that person was in the court. And its not just for the 35 they lost. A Libyan man accused of being involved in making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie in December 1988 is now in US custody, authorities in the United States and . After a three-year investigation in which the FBI and Scottish authorities worked hand in hand, the British and American governments in November 1991 announced indictments and warrants for the arrests of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah. "[51], In December 2013, the original prime suspects in the bombing were revealed to have been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), a Syria-based group led by Ahmed Jibril. Despite the passage of three decades, noted Mike McGarrity, who leads the Bureaus Counterterrorism Division, the FBI does not forget. Contrary to many popular accounts of the disaster (though repeated, with reference, below), the flight, which had a scheduled gate departure time of 18:00, left Heathrow airport on time.[16][17]. I got an expert in to confirm I was being listened to. Some 300 tons of wreckage were scattered over an area measuring 845 square miles, making the disaster also a crime scene of massive proportions. These little details somehow softened the blow for us. "At the time it all happened so fast. Ive never seen a law enforcement agency other than the Scottish police who did anything like this, Turman said. For Dick Marquise, who had been in charge of the FBIs investigation, and other investigators who worked tirelessly on behalf of the victims, the trials results were decidedly mixed. Inside the chapel at Dryfesdale there is a book of remembrance. [46], On the day of the bombing, the French Directorate-General for External Security was informed by their British counterpart that the UK suspected the Libyans to be behind the bombing.[47]. Their son witnessed a fireball engulfing his home from a neighbour's garage, where he had been repairing his sister's bicycle. One such incident created an explosion that witnesses likened to a mushroom cloud, and left a crater approximately 40 feet deep where, moments before, residential homes had stood in the town of Lockerbie, the agent said in the affadavit. Weve grown incredibly close to Hugh and Margaret over the years, calling each other, sending Christmas gifts and writing old-fashioned letters. Contradictory and inaccurate messages undermined the crisis response to the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight . The U.S. arrest of Libyan man Abu Agila Mas'ud accused of making the bomb that exploded on board Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 has renewed attention on the incident. I am one of the signatories. On December 1988, the Boeing 747 was scheduled to fly from Frankfurt, Germany, to Detroit, Michigan, via London and New York. He went on to describe the families of the Lockerbie victims as very greedy: "They were asking for more money and more money and more money". It is believed that, following his release, Al-Megrahi was prescribed abiraterone and prednisone, a combination that extends median survival by an average of 14.8 months. When, however, the evidence regarding the clothing, the purchaser, and the timer is taken with the evidence that an unaccompanied bag was taken from KM180 to PA103A, the inference that that was the primary suitcase becomes, in our view, irresistible. "[20]:16 This field, located opposite Tundergarth Church, is where the wreckage most easily identified with images of the accident in the media fell, having fallen "almost flat on its left side, but with a slight nose-down attitude. On 26 August 2011, it was announced that the whereabouts of Al-Megrahi were unknown due to the social upheaval in Libya and that he had not been in contact for some time. Part of the main memorial stone to the victims of the Pan Am flight 103 bombing in the garden of remembrance at Dryfesdale Cemetery, near Lockerbie, Scotland, Dec. 20, 2008. A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S . Detectives investigating the Lockerbie disaster revealed details yesterday of the painstaking investigation to find those responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. Tests were carried out on the bodies of 233 of the victims. On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103, en route from London's Heathrow Airport to New York, exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground . Investigators from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded that no emergency procedures had been started in the cockpit. Covers the bombing of the Boeing 747 Pan American Airways flight 103 at Lockerbie, Scotland at 1903 hours on December 21, 1988 that killed 259 passengers and crew and 11 Lockerbie residents. We wanted to do justice by these families.. Read about our approach to external linking. A bomb aboard the plane detonated over the Scottish town of Lockerbie . Dad was cremated so we dont have a grave or marker to visit. 1 The disputed territory of Western Sahara is mostly occupied and administered by Morocco; the Polisario Front claims the territory in militating for the establishment an independ As Megrahi had only been in Malta on 7 December, that date was assumed to be the purchase date. File photo from December 22, 1988 shows rescue personnel carrying a body . The BBC's Scotland correspondent, Andrew Cassell, reported on the 10th anniversary of the bombing that the townspeople had "opened their homes and hearts" to the relatives, bearing their own losses "stoically and with enormous dignity", and that the bonds forged then continue to this day.[41]. Had his parents' bodies been recovered, the entire family would be buried there together. As the forward fuselage continued to disintegrate, the flying debris tore off both of the horizontal stabilizers, while the rear fuselage, the remaining three engines, and the fin torque box separated. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by . [22] The CVR, located in the tail section of the aircraft, was found in a field by police searchers within 24 hours. The attack resulted in a devastating defeat for Gaddafi's forces, following which he had to accede to a ceasefire ending the Chadian-Libyan conflict and his dreams of African dominance. [101] Beginning at the age of 22 in 1973, he began working with bombs for the Libyan intelligence service for the next 38 years. A key suspect in 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, the majority of them Americans, is in U.S. custody, officials confirmed Sunday. Volunteers like the laundry ladies were just people who wanted to do the wee bit, to put something back in, and I think we can never lose sight of that, that human kindness. [85] The second appeal began on 28 April 2009, lasted for one month and was adjourned in May 2009. Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 explodes 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. 'To hide it, he (Khadafy) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland,' Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying."[148]. [40] According to a BBC article on the fire published in 2018, Keegans had gone upstairs to make sure that he had hidden his mother's Christmas present, and recalls, "Immediately after that, there was an enormous explosion". Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. Thats one of the things that we do in the FBI, and we do well, is we speak their names. I said, no, they havent stopped, they wont ever stop.. The Lockerbie bombing, as it came to be known, took 270 lives that evening of Dec. 21, 1988, killing everyone aboard along with 11 residents in the small Scottish town. It was like war for them, said Lockerbie resident Moira Shearer, speaking of the young soldiers who had never seen death before. Although the passengers aboard the plane came from 21 countries, the majority of them were Americans, and the attack increased terrorism fears in the United States. Volunteers from Lockerbie set up and staffed canteens which stayed open 24 hours a day and offered relatives, soldiers, police officers, and social workers free sandwiches, hot meals, beverages, and counseling. [162], The main UK memorial is at Dryfesdale Cemetery about one mile (1.5 kilometres) west of Lockerbie. The CIA and FBI said the suspects, employed by Libyan Arab Airlines in Malta, were also Libyan intelligence agents. Kreindler argued that the fees were justified, since "Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for, and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money. Richard Granat-the creator of MyLawyer.com, SmartLegalForms and the People's Law Library of Maryland-has joined Intraspexion, a new artificial-intelligence software company, as a strategic adviser. Bryony was travelling to the United States with her mother Yvonne Owen from Wales, to spend Christmas in Boston. On 16 August 2003, Libya formally admitted responsibility for Pan Am Flight 103 in a letter presented to the president of the United Nations Security Council. Laurie, 49, says: Mum called Hugh and Margaret. BBC interview of Dr. Hans Kchler, "Judgement on the scope of Megrahi's second appeal", "Secret talks on deal to return Megrahi to Libya", "Lockerbie: Megrahi appeal will not be heard until next year", "Timeline: Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi and the Lockerbie bombing", Summary of the opinion of the court in appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi against Her Majesty's Advocate. The firm's fees could exceed US$300million eventually. These aviators lost their pensions, healthcare, savings, and livelihoods when . He survived for almost three more years. One theory suggests the bomb on the plane was detonated by radio. "The mystery if that's what you want to call it was laid to rest.". The lecture, "It was known as the place where nothing ever happens. I hope that the contents of this letter underline some of the reasons as to why I cannot possibly accept that any inquiry should be limited to Scotland, and I apologise if my previous personal letter of 24 August misled you over the main focus that the inquiry will need to address. [90][91][92] The same source claims that, following this, "the shaking stopped and to his surprise he was uninjured".