Lockerbie Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (1988)

The explosion of the Pan Am Flight 103 was the the second worst terrorist attack, after the one at the World Trade Center in 2001. This attempt took place on December 21, 1988 during the flight from London to New York, but the explosion occurred in Lockerbie, Scotland. Unfortunately, all the passengers died, who were 243 and 13 crew members, besides the eleven persons who were on ground; which makes a total 270 victims.

A person described this attack like meteors falling from the sky. Documents say that at 6:56 p.m. reached 31,000 ft. and that seven minutes later, at 7:03 p.m. that plane exploded. The residents of Scotdale saw pieces from the plane and pieces of human body falling from the sky, as well as gasoline who spit all over the roofs and turned all the houses on fire.

One of the wings of the plane hit the ground with too much force that it created a crater about 155 ft. long; the nose of the plane landed almos intact in a field; and wreckage was thrown over 55 squared miles, causing 21 houses to be destroyed.

Many people think that besides the flight carried with 21 passengers from different countries, it was an special attack to the United States becuase 189 of 259 were American citizens and because the attack shattered with sense of safety and security in America.

Besides the terrible consequences, no one could do justice, until eleven years later because the two men that were form Lybia and who were thought that caused the attack, were protected by their own country. It was until on January 31, 2001, Megrahi was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Fhimah was acquitted.

The bomb was made out of the plastic explosive Semtex and was activated by a timer. The bomb was hidden in a Toshiba radio-cassette player which in turn, was inside a brown Samsonite suitcase. But the real problem for investigators has been who put the bomb in the suitcase and how did the bomb get on the plane?
The investigators believe they received a "big break" when a man and his dog were walking in a forest about 80 miles from Lockerbie. While walking, the man found a T-shirt which turned out to have pieces of the timer in it. Tracing the T-shirt as well as the maker of the timer, investigators felt confident they knew who bombed Flight 103 - Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah.