Two of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster may have initially survived the explosion, a report suggests. [136], On 24 February 2004, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem stated in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his country had paid the compensation as the "price for peace" and to secure the lifting of sanctions. Also aboard was Irish Olympic sailor Peter Dix[29] and rock musician Paul Jeffreys and his wife. The clothes were traced to a Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, who became a key prosecution witness, testifying that he sold the clothes to a man of Libyan appearance. I think thats one of the things that I admire most about them.. Then, two Libyan radio ships were sunk in the Gulf of Sidra. December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit via London blows up. Four days before Christmas in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded 31,000 feet above Scotland. His survival beyond the approximate "three-month" prognosis generated some controversy. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody - BBC News [133][132], On 15 August 2003, Libya's UN ambassador, Ahmed Own, submitted a letter to the UN Security Council formally accepting "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in relation to the Lockerbie bombing. [114], Prior to the abandonment of Megrahi's second appeal against conviction and while new evidence could be still tested in court, there had been few calls for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing. The bomb, constructed with the odourless plastic explosive Semtex, was hidden in a cassette player that was stored in a suitcase. October 17, 1990. But while they wept, tormented by their imagination of what had happened to 45-year-old Frank, thousands of miles away astonished farmers Margaret and Hugh Connell had discovered him six miles from the town in one of their fields still strapped to his seat, 11B, and almost unmarked. We have had contact with a lot of different people in the FBI over the years, said the groups president, Kara Weipz, and they have become almost like family members. We very much had a tradition where the court building was sacrosanct, McCulloch said. Another caller claimed the plane had been downed by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed midair over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 [53] In 2014, an Iranian ex-spy asserted that Iran ordered the attack. The agreement covers 26 lawsuits filed by American citizens against Libya, and three by Libyan citizens in respect of the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 which killed at least 40 people and injured 220. All 259 on board die, and 11 on ground. Every 21 December, a service is held in the university's chapel at 14:03 (19:03 UTC), marking the moment the bomb on board the aircraft was detonated. [66], On 21 December 2020, the 32nd anniversary of the disaster, the United States attorney general announced that Abu Agela Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a Libyan national in custody in Libya, had been charged with terrorism-related crimes in connection with the bombing, accusing him of involvement in constructing the bomb. The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 was concealed in a cassette recorder and packed inside a suitcase that was loaded onto a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany, with no accompanying passenger. A flood of warnings immediately preceding the disaster had included one that read: 'team of Palestinians not associated with PLO intends to attack US targets in Europe. As the forward fuselage continued to disintegrate, the flying debris tore off both of the horizontal stabilizers, while the rear fuselage, the remaining three engines, and the fin torque box separated.
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