WASHINGTON – The FBI today marked the bombing of Flight 103 over Scotland, a tragic event which took place 25 years ago and took the lives of all 259 people on board.
“Today, as in years past, the victims were honored during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery’s Lockerbie Cairn—a memorial built of 270 blocks of red Scottish sandstone, each representing a life that was lost in the disaster,” the FBI reported.
In addition to the 259 people on the plane who died – which included 189 Americans – 11 Scots on the ground were also killed.
As reported by the FBI, on a cold and ultimately chilling evening just four days before Christmas, Pan Am Flight 103 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport bound for New York City on December 21, 1988. Less than 40 minutes into the flight, the plane exploded over the sky above Lockerbie, Scotland.
Forensic specialists from the FBI, the CIA, and elsewhere determined that one of the crash fragments found on the ground, no bigger than a thumbnail, came from the circuit board of a radio/cassette player. That tiny piece of evidence helped establish that the bomb had been placed inside that radio and tape deck in a piece of luggage. Another small fragment, found embedded in a piece of shirt, helped identify the type of timer.
This evidence led to two Libyan intelligence operatives. In November 1991, the U.S. and Scotland simultaneously indicted the pair for planting the bomb. On January 31, 2001, after years of working to extradite the men and bring the case to trial, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi was found guilty of the crime. The co-defendant was found not guilty and released.
The Libyan government formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to the victims’ families.
