A section of the wreckage of the Boeing 747 N739PA, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on the 21st of December 1988, is being sent to the US ahead of an upcoming trial of Abu Agila Mas’ud who is charged with the destruction of the aircraft.
The section being sent to the US is a reconstructed section that was painstakingly put together by investigators from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) who were responsible for investigating the cause of the crash which killed 270 people.
The AAIB used parts of the wreckage from Pan Am Flight 103 and set it to a special frame to show where the bomb had exploded and pushed outward from the fuselage.
For years the section remained at the AAIB headquarters in Farnborough, Hampshire but was transferred to Scotland in 2013 but it wasn’t disposed of as the investigation still remains live.
A trial in 2000 saw two Libyan men charged with murder, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah. The court found al-Megrahi guilty but acquitted Fhimah meaning that to date, al-Megrahi is the only man to ever have been convicted for blowing up Pan Am flight 103. Al-Megrahi was ordered to serve 27 years of a life sentence but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 by the Scottish Government after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he died in Libya in 2012.
Serious doubts about his conviction were raised by prominent figures involved with the trial and the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) spent four years going over the case and referred back to the court of appeal due to a high chance of their having been a miscarriage of justice.
Abu Agila Mas’ud, widely regarded as the bomb maker, was taken into custody by the US in 2022 and the US has been working with the Scottish Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) ever since to put together a case for trial.
Speaking about the transfer of evidence, including aircraft parts, Lead Prosecutor Laura Buchan of the COPFS said “Since Mas’ud was taken into custody by the US in 2022, Scottish prosecutors and police have been engaged in a formal evidence-sharing process with the US Department of Justice.
“The transfer of physical items of evidence from Scotland into US custody is beginning.
“The transfer includes parts of the fuselage of Pan Am 103 which are a production in the criminal investigation.
“We understand that the fuselage will hold significance for many of the families of those who lost their lives and they have been informed of the transfer plans.”
The trial of Mas’ud is expected to begin in May 2025.
The remaining wreckage of Pan Am 103, that was not used in the investigation, is stored in a scrap yard in Lincolnshire where it also cannot be disposed of as insurance claim and liability battles are still on going.
259 people were killed onboard Pan Am 103 and 11 people were killed on the ground in Lockerbie.
A major new documentary set to start on the 2nd January on Sky called Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, follows the work of Dr Jim Swire whose daughter Flora was onboard the plane. Dr Swire has never accepted the verdict of there Lockerbie trial and he, along with many supporters, has dedicated his life to finding the real truth of what happened to Pan Am 103.