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Pan Am 103: Lockerbie’s longest night

Nick Harding

The cockpit on Tundergarth Hill, Lockerbie

At the exact time this article went live, 19:03 GMT on the 21st of December 36 years ago a bomb exploded onboard a Pan American (Pan Am) Boeing 747-121 registered as N739PA and called Clipper Maid of the Seas.

The flight was operating a service from London Heathrow to New York JFK, Flight Number PA103.

At the time of the explosion Clipper Maid of the Seas was crossing the English/Scottish border and as the aircraft disintegrated in midair, the small market town of Lockerbie was about to become known across the world.

Passengers boarding Pan Am 103 at London Heathrow were excited for Christmas, and many of them were travelling home for the holiday, including 35 students from Syracuse University who had been studying abroad.

Boeing 747-121 N739PA Clipper Maid of the Seas (Image: By Ted Quackenbush CC BY-SA 3.0)

The flight departed from the stand at 18:04hrs preparing for a departure from Runway 27R at Heathrow. At 18:25hrs the flight took off and turned North towards Scotland for its flight over the Atlantic climbing to its initial cruise level of 31,000ft (Flight Level 310) which it reached at 18:56hrs.

Shortly after, Shanwick Control issued the aircraft Oceanic clearance but this was never acknowledged, because at 19:03hrs an explosion ripped a hole in the side of the Boeing 747’s forward port fuselage spraying debris into the engines and initiating a rapid break-up of the aircraft.

On the ground in Lockerbie, the small market town was preparing for Christmas. People were at home with their families enjoying evening television or visiting friends. Shortly after 19:00hrs residents began to hear a loud rumbling sound which got louder and louder until a bright flash lit up the night sky in the Sherwood Crescent area of the town.

Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie

The centre section of the Jumbo Jet containing the majority of the fuel and central wing box hit Sherwood Crescent incinerating several houses and their occupants and digging out a crater of 560 cubic meters with a force equivalent to 1500 tonnes.

Park Place also saw large sections of the aircraft landing on it destroying houses and causing serious damage. Residents emerged to find bodies strewn around their normally quiet neighbourhood. Some hanging from the remains of rooftops, some still strapped into their seats.

It soon became clear that this was a major disaster and many people had lost their lives, both in the aircraft and also on the ground.

The nature of the disaster soon became clear to rescuers when two farmers, who went out to see what was happening, discovered the nose section of the Boeing 747 on Tundergarth Hill in what has now become the iconic image of the disaster. The wreckage bore the name Clipper Maid of the Seas.

The cockpit of Pan Am Flight 103

Fire Engines and Police poured into the small borders town to fight the fires that had ignited across Lockerbie, in particular at Sherwood Crescent where thousands of gallons of jet fuel was burning. Ambulances streamed in from across the region to aid the injured, but it soon became evident that apart from a few minor injuries to residents, there were no lives to save.

In all, 16 Pan Am crew members, 243 passengers and 11 residents of Lockerbie had lost their lives.

Investigation to Conviction

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) immediately launched an investigation into the accident and within a relatively short period it was established that this was not an accident and was in fact, an act of terrorism.

The investigation was led by Dumfries and Galloway Police (Now part of Police Scotland) and together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) they investigated and built a class which implicated Libya, in particular two Libyan Nationals Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah.

Following years of lobbying, The Libyans agreed to hand over the suspects on the condition that they would not be interviewed by the police; no one else in Libya would be sought for the bombing; and, that the trial should be before three Scottish judges, sitting without a jury.

The trial began on the 3rd of May 2000 at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, a special court that had been convened as Scottish soil for the purposes of the trial.

On the 31st of January the following year the three Scottish judges returned their verdicts. They found al-Megrahi guilty of the murder of 270 people, Fhimah was acquitted. al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.

al-Megrahi has always protested his innocence and following an initial appeal that was rejected, a new one was due to start in 2009. This was subsequently dropped to facilitate his release on compassionate grounds as he had terminal prostate cancer. In August of that year, he was released and returned to Lockerbie after serving less than half of his minimum sentence. He died three years later at home.

Park Place, Lockerbie

Many have always refused to accept the verdict of the initial trial including Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was a passenger on Pan Am 103. He has campaigned to find the real truth of the Lockerbie bombing and his story is part of a new drama on Sky which airs on 2nd January 2025. UN Observer at the trial Hans Kochler was also critical of the trial saying he thought that the trial had been “politically influenced in breach of legal traditions and principles, such as the Rule of law”

Scotland’s Criminal Case Review Commission (SCCRC), also completed a report on the conviction and found multiple grounds for there to have been the possibility of a miscarriage of justice in the conviction of al-Megrahi. A report that was heavily suppressed by the Scottish Government.

All of this leaves many to believe there are still many unanswered questions about what led up to the bombing of Pan Am 103 and who carried it out.

Air Accident Investigators painstakingly reconstructed Pan Am 103 from the wreckage (AAIB)

On-going Criminal Investigation

Despite the condition that no one else in Libya would be sought the FBI continued to investigate the issue along with Police Scotland and this led to charges being laid in the US against another Libyan Abu Agila Masud who was extradited to the US to face trial in 2025.

Masud is accused of being the person who made the bomb which was inside a Toshiba Radio Cassette player which was then placed onboard Pan Am 103.

His upcoming trial has led to the front section of N739PA, which was reconstructed by the AAIB in Farnborough, to be transferred to the US as part of the evidence.

Rows of passenger seats collected in Lockerbie

Moving on

For many in the town of Lockerbie, 35 years is a long time to be synonymous with such a disaster. Those who were alive on the 21st of December 1988 though will never forget the events that put Lockerbie on the lips of almost every news reader across the globe.

Large events were held to commemorate the 10th and 25th anniversaries but outside of that the memorials have been smaller, more private affairs.

Many relatives of the victims still make the pilgrimage to the town and are welcomed by locals in the way only the shared grief of such an event can and no matter what their belief on investigations, trials and convictions, the victims all share the grief of a loss.

Whether it was the young mother from Bristol who was travelling with her baby to start a new life, the students of Syracuse University who had their whole lives ahead of them, the Doctors daughter off to see her boyfriend or the family where Mum, Dad and Daughter died in the safety of their own home.

They are all united in being the victims of the night death fell from the sky over Lockerbie.

Memorial at Lockerbie Cemetery

The Victims of Lockerbie

Pan Am 103 Flight Crew

Flora Swire, daughter of Dr Jim Swire, was killed onboard Pan Am 103

Pan Am 103 Passengers

Lockerbie Residents

This article was published at 19:03hrs GMT on the 21st December 2024.

You can read the full report by the AAIB into the crash of Pan Am 103 here

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