December 21 - Lockerbie Disaster

This Day in History: 21 December 2019

 

21 December 1998

 

21 years ago, today, the Lockerbie disaster occurred, the deadliest terror attack in Britain. The Pan Am Fight 103 was destroyed mid-air, killing 258 that were onboard, including crew members, as well as an additional 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, that were on ground. This was caused by a bomb, hidden inside an audio cassette player in the cargo area, that exploded when the plane was 31,000 feet above ground. Down below in Lockerbie, parts of the plane and bodies were raining onto houses, and many fires broke out. The tragedy became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation and was believed to be an attack against the United States, as the plane was headed towards New York, and 189 of the victims were American. Islamic terrorists were believed to be the culprits of the disaster, planting the bomb while in Frankfurt, Germany, possibly as a retaliation for the 1986 US air strikes against Libya, where many people were killed. Prior to the incident, a warning call had been received by the US embassy in Finland that a bomb would be planted on this flight, however, officials later said that this was coincidental.

 

3 years later, in 1991, the British authorities and the FBI began a joint investigation on Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah. They were both accused of murder, but Libya refused to hand them over. In 1991, Colonel Gaddafi agreed to hand them both over to Scotland using their law and prosecutors. Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and received life in prison, while Fhimah was cleared, however al-Megrahi was freed in 2009 after only having months to live, and he returned back to Libya. In 2003, after al-Megrahi was imprisoned, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing, resulting in the US and UN then deciding to lift sanctions against Libya, causing Libya to agree to give each victim's families $8 million. Pam Am Airlines also became bankrupt in 1991, and successfully sued Libya, thus gaining $30 million settlement.

 

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