View source for Pan Am Flight 103

{{Short description|1988 terrorist bombing in Scotland}}
{{Redirect|Flight 103|other uses|Flight 103 (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox aircraft occurrence
| occurrence_type = Bombing
| name            = Pan Am Flight 103
| image           = Pan Am Flight 103. Crashed Lockerbie, Scotland, 21 December 1988.jpg
| alt             = 
| caption         = The remains of the forward section from ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'' on Tundergarth Hill
| date            = {{start date|1988|12|21|df=y}}
| summary         = [[In-flight breakup|In-flight breakup]] due to terrorist bombing allegedly by Libyan intelligence agents
| site            = [[Lockerbie]], Scotland
| coordinates     = {{coord|55|06|56|N|003|21|31|W|type:event_globe:earth_region:GB-SCT|display=inline,title}}
| plane1_image    = Pan American World Airways - Pan Am Boeing 747-121 N739PA "Clipper Maid of the Seas" (25017912834).jpg
| plane1_caption  = N739PA, the aircraft involved in the bombing, in 1986
| total_fatalities = 270
| origin          = [[Frankfurt Airport]], [[Frankfurt]], Germany
| stopover0       = [[Heathrow Airport]], London, United Kingdom
| stopover1       = [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]], New York City, New York, United States
| destination     = [[Detroit Metropolitan Airport]], Detroit, Michigan, United States
| aircraft_type   = [[Boeing 747-100|Boeing 747-121]]
| aircraft_name   = ''Clipper Maid of the Seas''
| Operator        = [[Pan American World Airways]]
| IATA            = PA103
| ICAO            = PAA103
| callsign        = CLIPPER 103
| tail_number     = N739PA
| occupants       = 259
| passengers      = 243
| crew            = 16
| fatalities      = 259<!-- don't need to add "(all)", we already have survivors=0 -->
| survivors       = 0
| ground_fatalities = 11
}}

'''Pan Am Flight 103''' ('''PA103/PAA103''') was a regularly scheduled [[Pan Am]] [[transatlantic flight]] from [[Frankfurt]] to [[Detroit]] via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the [[Boeing 747]] "Clipper Maid of the Seas" was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of [[Lockerbie]], killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew aboard.<ref name="panamair_victims">{{cite web |year=2007 |url=http://www.panamair.org/accidents/lockerbievictims.htm |title=Clipper Maid of the Seas: Remembering those on flight 103 |publisher=panamair.org |access-date=8 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080326232104/http://www.panamair.org/accidents/lockerbievictims.htm |archive-date=26 March 2008 }}</ref> Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, the event, which became known as the '''Lockerbie bombing''', is the deadliest [[Terrorism in the United Kingdom|terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom]].

Following a three-year joint investigation by [[Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary]] and the US [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in 1991. After protracted negotiations and United Nations sanctions, in 1999, Libyan leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]] handed over the two men for trial at [[Scottish Court in the Netherlands|Camp Zeist, the Netherlands]]. In 2001, [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]], a Libyan intelligence officer, was found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]], was acquitted. In 2009, Megrahi was [[Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|released]] by the [[Scottish Government]] on [[Compassionate release|compassionate grounds]] after being diagnosed with [[prostate cancer]]. He died in 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack.

In 2003, Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, and paid more than US$1 billion in compensation to the families of the victims. Although Gaddafi maintained that he had never personally given the order for the attack,<ref name=BBC/> acceptance of Megrahi's status as a government employee was used to connect responsibility by Libya with a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution for sanctions against Libya to be lifted.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 August 2003 |title=Libya ready to accept responsibility for Lockerbie bombing |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/libya-ready-to-accept-responsibility-for-lockerbie-bombing-100088.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/libya-ready-to-accept-responsibility-for-lockerbie-bombing-100088.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=13 June 2020 |website=The Independent}}</ref> In 2011, during the [[Libyan civil war (2011)|First Libyan Civil War]], former Minister of Justice [[Mustafa Abdul Jalil]] said that Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |date=23 February 2011 |title=Colonel Gaddafi 'ordered Lockerbie bombing' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-12552587 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226151414/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-12552587 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |access-date=21 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref> 

As all the accomplices required for such a complex operation were never identified, or convicted, many conspiracy theories have swirled, such as East German [[Stasi]] agents having a possible role in the attack. Some relatives of the dead, including Lockerbie campaigner [[Jim Swire]], believe the bomb was planted at [[Heathrow Airport]], possibly by a sleeper cell belonging to the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command]], which had been operating in [[West Germany]] in the months before the Pan Am bombing, and not sent via feeder flights from [[Malta]], as suggested by the US and UK governments.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Connolly|first1=Kate|last2=Carrell|first2=Severin|date=20 March 2019|title=Lockerbie investigators 'question former Stasi agents'|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/20/lockerbie-investigators-question-former-stasi-agents|access-date=13 June 2020|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421213126/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/20/lockerbie-investigators-question-former-stasi-agents|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2020, US authorities indicted the [[Tunisians|Tunisian]] resident and Libyan national [[Abu Agila Masud]], who was 37 years old at the time of the incident,<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |date=21 December 2020 |title=US unveils new charges against the suspect in 1988 Lockerbie bombing |url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/21/lockerbie-bombing-new-charges-suspect-plane-attack-us |access-date=21 December 2020 |website=The Guardian |archive-date=21 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221155419/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/21/lockerbie-bombing-new-charges-suspect-plane-attack-us |url-status=live }}</ref> for participating in the bombing. He was taken into custody in 2022,<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 December 2022 |title=Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-63933837.amp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211123341/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-63933837.amp |archive-date=11 December 2022 |access-date=11 December 2022 |website=BBC News}}</ref> pleading not guilty in 2023.<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 February 2023 |title=Lockerbie bombing suspect pleads not guilty in US court |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64574171 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240120230506/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64574171 |archive-date=20 January 2024 |access-date=22 January 2024 |work=BBC News}}</ref> A federal trial is set for 2026.<ref name="BBCTrialDelayed">{{Cite news |date=2025-06-05 |title=Lockerbie bombing trial in the US delayed until next year |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2e1rk90v8o |access-date=2025-06-09 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

Pan Am 103 was the second Boeing 747 which was lost to a mid-air bombing, after [[Air India Flight 182|Air India 182]] in June 1985.
[[File:Pan Am Boeing 747-121 N739PA "Clipper Maid of the Seas" at Los Angeles International Airport in 1987 (original).jpg|thumb|The explosion occurred almost directly under the second A in "Pan Am" on this side of the fuselage, in the forward cargo hold.]]

==Aircraft==
The aircraft operating Pan Am Flight 103 was a [[Boeing 747-100|Boeing 747-121]], [[Serial number|MSN]] 19646, [[Aircraft registration|registered]] as {{Airreg|N|739PA}} and named ''Clipper Maid of the Seas.''<ref name="Mayday" /> Before 1979, it had been named ''Clipper Morning Light''.{{Cn|date=July 2024}} It was the 15th 747 built and had [[maiden flight|first flown]] on 25 January 1970. It was delivered to Pan Am on 15 February,<ref name=Boeing>{{cite news |title=Jet That Crashed Was an Early 747 |date=22 December 1988 |agency=[[Associated Press]] |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |page=A6 |quote=The jumbo jet that crashed...in Scotland was the 15th 747 built...The Pan Am 747-100...was delivered to Pan American in February 1970. The first 747 ever delivered to an airline–also Pan Am–entered the fleet the previous month ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/panam103/stories/crash122288.htm |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=22 December 1988 |access-date=21 May 2010 |title=Pan Am Jet Crashes in Scotland, Killing at Least 273 |first=Edward |last=Cody |page=A1 |archive-date=31 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831214155/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/panam103/stories/crash122288.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> one month after the first 747 entered service with [[Pan Am]].<ref name=Boeing/><ref>{{cite news |title=Doomed plane 'well inside its service limit' |date=22 December 1988 |first1=David |last1=Cross |first2=Peter |last2=De Ionno |newspaper=Times of London}}</ref> In 1978, as ''Clipper Morning Light'', it had appeared in "Conquering the Atlantic", the fourth episode of the [[BBC Television]] documentary series ''Diamonds in the Sky'', presented by [[Julian Pettifer]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQ2ObJEokQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/pkQ2ObJEokQ |archive-date=21 December 2021 |url-status=live|title=Diamonds in the Sky EP04 – Aviation travel industry history series – Conquering the Atlantic |publisher=YouTube |date=18 May 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Flight==
Pan Am 103 originated as a [[Regional airline|feeder flight]] at [[Frankfurt Airport]], West Germany, using a [[Boeing 727]] and the flight number PA103-A. Both Pan Am and [[Trans World Airlines]] routinely changed the type of aircraft operating different legs of a flight. PA103 was bookable as either a single Frankfurt–New York or a Frankfurt–Detroit itinerary, though a scheduled [[Change of gauge (aviation)|change of aircraft]] took place in London's Heathrow Airport.{{citation needed span||date=December 2023}}

After the bombing, the flight number was changed, in accordance with standard practice among airlines after disasters.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/03/13/289800435/when-bad-things-happen-to-planes-flight-codes-get-retired |title=When Bad Things Happen To Planes, Flight Codes Get 'Retired' |work=NPR |last=Neuman |first=Scott |date=13 March 2014 |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-date=6 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006033106/https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/03/13/289800435/when-bad-things-happen-to-planes-flight-codes-get-retired |url-status=live }}</ref> The Frankfurt–London–New York–Detroit route was being served by Pan Am Flight 3 until the company's demise in 1991.<ref>Pan Am Flight Guide, Winter 1989.{{full citation needed|date=December 2023}}</ref>

==Explosion and impact timeline==

===Departure===
On its arrival at [[Heathrow Terminal 3]] on the day of the disaster, the passengers and their luggage (as well as an unaccompanied suitcase which was part of the interline luggage on the feeder flight) were transferred directly to ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boeing 747-100 with the registration N739PA whose previous flight had originated from Los Angeles and arrived via San Francisco as flight PA 124, landing at 12 noon and parking at Gate K-14.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huber |first=Patrick |title=Pan Am Flug 103: Die Tragödie von Lockerbie - Weihnachtsreise in den Tod |publisher=Epubli |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-758447-63-1 |location=Vienna/Berlin |publication-date=2023 |pages=87 |language=de |trans-title=Pan Am Flight 103: The Tragedy of Lockerbie - Christmas Journey into death}}</ref> The plane, which operated the flight's transatlantic leg, pushed back from the terminal at 18:04 and took off from runway 27R at 18:25, bound for [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|New York JFK Airport]] and then [[Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport]]. Contrary to many popular accounts of the disaster (though repeated, with reference, [[#Civil investigation|below]]), the flight, which had a scheduled gate departure time of 18:00, left Heathrow airport on time<!--this conflicts with this article later on-->.<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=David |title=Lockerbie, the real story |year=1989 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd. |page=232}}</ref><ref>Transcript of the trial of the Scottish court at Camp Zeist 2000, p. 59.</ref>

===Loss of contact===
At 18:58, the aircraft established [[two-way radio]] contact with [[Shanwick Oceanic Control|Shanwick Oceanic Area Control]] in [[Prestwick]], Scotland, on 123.95&nbsp;MHz. The transmission was made by Captain MacQuarrie. He transmitted, "Good evening, Scottish. Clipper 103. We are level at 310." The controller responded, "103, you are identified."{{cn|date=April 2025}}

''Clipper Maid of the Seas'' approached the corner of the [[Solway Firth]] at 19:01, and crossed the coast at 19:02 UTC. On scope, the aircraft showed [[transponder code]], or "squawk", 0357 and [[flight level]] 310. At this point, the ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'' was flying at {{convert|31000|ft|m|abbr=off}} on a heading of 316° magnetic, and at a speed of {{convert|313|kn|km/h mph|abbr=on}} [[calibrated airspeed]]. Subsequent analysis of the radar returns by [[RSRE]] concluded that the aircraft was tracking 321° (grid) and traveling at a ground speed of {{convert|803|km/h|mph kn|abbr=on}}.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}}

At 19:02:44 Alan Topp, the airways controller at [[Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre (Military)|Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre]] (ATC), transmitted its oceanic route clearance on behalf of Shanwick. The aircraft did not acknowledge this message. ''Clipper Maid of the Seas''<nowiki/>'s "squawk" then flickered off at 55.0866670, -3.3291669, just slightly northeast of the village of [[Kettleholm]]. Air traffic control tried to make contact with the flight, with no response. A loud noise was recorded on the [[cockpit voice recorder]] (CVR) at 19:02:50. Five radar echoes fanning out appeared, instead of one.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetGOjg/Lockerbie.htm |title=Lockerbie Accident Investigation |publisher=Dnausers.d-n-a.net |access-date=5 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100514083021/http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetGOjg/Lockerbie.htm |archive-date=14 May 2010}}</ref>{{sfn|Cox|Foster|1992}} Comparison of the CVR to the radar returns showed that, eight seconds after the explosion, the wreckage had a {{convert|1|nmi|km|adj=on}} spread.<ref name="officialaaib" /> A [[British Airways]] pilot, flying the London–Glasgow shuttle near [[Carlisle]], called Scottish ATC to report that he could see a huge fire on the ground.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Black|first1=Ian|last2=Seenan|first2=Gerard|date=4 May 2000|title=Court told how jet's radar blip broke up at 7.02&nbsp;pm|work=The Guardian|location=UK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Lockerbie/Story/0,2763,216917,00.html|access-date=8 September 2008|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

===Disintegration of aircraft===
[[File:Pan Am 103 AAIB model fuselage damage.jpg|thumb|[[Air Accident Investigation Branch]] model showing fuselage and tail fracture lines and ground locations of parts:<br />Green—southern wreckage trail;<br />red—northern wreckage trail;<br />grey—impact crater;<br />yellow—Rosebank (Lockerbie);<br />white—not recovered/identified.<ref name=officialaaib/>{{Reference page|pages=15–19}} ]]

The explosion punched a 50&nbsp;cm (20&nbsp;in) hole on the left side of the fuselage. Investigators from the US [[Federal Aviation Administration]] (FAA) concluded that no emergency procedures had been started in the cockpit.<ref name="Cox 1992 110">{{harvnb|Cox|Foster|1992|p=110}}</ref> The CVR, located in the tail section of the aircraft, was found in a field (55.1244439, -3.3400000) by police searchers within 24 hours. No distress call was recorded; a 180-millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft's communications center.<ref>{{harvnb|Cox|Foster|1992|p=69}}</ref> The explosion in the aircraft hold was magnified by the [[uncontrolled decompression]] of the fuselage – a large difference in pressure between the aircraft's interior and exterior. The aircraft's elevator- and rudder-control cables had been disrupted and the fuselage pitched downwards and to the left.<ref name="Cox 1992 71">{{harvnb|Cox|Foster|1992|p=71}}</ref>

Investigators from the [[Air Accidents Investigation Branch]] of the British [[Department for Transport]] concluded that the nose of the aircraft was blown off and separated from the main fuselage within three seconds of the explosion. The nose cone was briefly held on by a band of metal, but facing aft, like the lid of a can. It then sheared off, up, and backwards to starboard, striking off the number-three engine and landing some distance outside the town, on a hill in Tundergarth (55.1146939, -3.2964999).

===Fuselage impact===
The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached {{convert|19000|ft|m|abbr=on}}, when its dive became nearly vertical.<ref name=officialaaib/>{{Reference page|page=44}} Due to the extreme flutter, the vertical stabilizer disintegrated, which in turn produced large yawing movements. 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.<ref name="Cox 1992 110"/> The rear fuselage, parts of the baggage hold, and three landing gear units landed at Rosebank Crescent (55.1183929, -3.3495579).<ref name=officialaaib/>{{Reference page|page=44}} The fuselage consisting of the main wing box structure landed in Sherwood Crescent (55.1154462, -3.3584459), destroying three homes and creating a large impact crater. The {{convert|200000|lb|kg|abbr=on}} of jet fuel ignited by the impact started fires, which destroyed several additional houses.<ref name=officialaaib/>{{Reference page|page=4}} Investigators determined that both wings had landed in the Sherwood Crescent crater, saying, "the total absence of debris from the wing primary structure found remote from the crater confirmed the initial impression that the complete wing box structure had been present at the main impact."<ref name="officialaaib">{{cite book |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f36ee5274a1317000489/2-1990_N739PA.pdf |title=Aircraft Accident Report 2/90: Report on the Accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988 |date=6 August 1990 |publisher=Air Accidents Investigation Branch, UK Department of Transport, Crown Publishing |location=London, UK |access-date=20 November 2017 |archive-date=1 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501090855/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f36ee5274a1317000489/2-1990_N739PA.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Reference page|page=16}}

The [[British Geological Survey]] {{convert|23|km|mi}} away at [[Eskdalemuir Observatory|Eskdalemuir]] registered a seismic event at 19:03:36 measuring 1.6 on the [[moment magnitude scale]], which was attributed to the impact. According to the report, the rest of the wreckage composed of "the complete fuselage forward of approximately station 480 to station 380 and incorporating the flight deck and nose landing gear was found as one piece in a field approximately {{convert|4|km|miles}} east of Lockerbie."<ref name=officialaaib/>{{Reference page|page=16}} This field (55.1146939, -3.2964999), located opposite [[List of listed buildings in Tundergarth, Dumfries and Galloway|Tundergarth Church]], is where the wreckage most easily identified with images of the incident in the media fell, having fallen "almost flat on its left side, but with a slight nose-down attitude."<ref name=officialaaib/>{{Reference page|page=16}}

==Victims==
{{clear}}
{| class="wikitable sortable non-sortable" style="float:right; margin-left:2em;"
|-
! scope="col" |Nationality
! scope="col"|Passengers
! scope="col" |Crew
! scope="col" |Ground
! scope="col" |Total
|-
|{{flagicon|Argentina}} Argentina||style="text-align:center;"|2||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|{{flagicon|Belgium}} Belgium||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Bolivia}} Bolivia||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Canada}} Canada||style="text-align:center;"|3||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|{{flagicon|France|1974}} France||style="text-align:center;"|2||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|{{flagicon|West Germany}} West Germany||style="text-align:center;"|3||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|4
|-
|{{flagicon|Hungary}} Hungary||style="text-align:center;"|4||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|4
|-
|{{flagicon|India}} India||style="text-align:center;"|3||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|{{flagicon|Ireland}} Ireland||style="text-align:center;"|3||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|{{flagicon|Israel}} Israel||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Italy}} Italy||style="text-align:center;"|2||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|{{flagicon|Jamaica}} Jamaica||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Japan|1947}} Japan||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Philippines|1986}} Philippines||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|South Africa|1982}} South Africa||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Spain}} Spain||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Sweden}} Sweden||style="text-align:center;"|2||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|{{flagicon|Switzerland}} Switzerland||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago}} Trinidad and Tobago||style="text-align:center;"|1||{{n/a|-}}||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom||style="text-align:center;"|31||style="text-align:center;"|1||style="text-align:center;"|11||style="text-align:center;"|43
|-
|{{flagicon|United States}} United States||style="text-align:center;"|179||style="text-align:center;"|11||{{n/a|-}}||style="text-align:center;"|190
|-
!'''Total'''!! style="text-align:center;" |'''243'''!! style="text-align:center;" |'''16'''!! style="text-align:center;" |'''11'''!! style="text-align:center;" |'''270'''
|}
{{clear}}
All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed, as were 11 residents of Lockerbie on the ground. Of the 270 total fatalities, 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. Nineteen other nationalities were represented, with four or fewer passengers per country.<ref name="Mayday">"Pan Am 103." ''[[Mayday (Canadian TV series)|Mayday]]''.</ref><ref name="Victims">{{cite web |url=http://www.victimsofpanamflight103.org/victims |title=Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 |access-date=16 March 2011 |archive-date=16 April 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416023929/http://www.victimsofpanamflight103.org/victims |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Crew===
Flight 103 was under the command of Captain James B. MacQuarrie (55), a Pan Am pilot since 1964 with almost 11,000 flight hours, of which more than 4,000 had been accrued in 747 aircraft. He previously served three years in the [[U.S. Navy]] and five years in the [[Massachusetts Air National Guard]], where he held the rank of major. First Officer Raymond R. Wagner (52), a pilot with Pan Am since 1966 with almost 5,500 hours in the 747 and a total of nearly 12,000 hours, had previously served eight years in the [[New Jersey National Guard]]. Flight Engineer Jerry D. Avritt (46), who joined Pan Am in 1980 after 13 years with [[National Airlines (1934–1980)|National Airlines]], had more than 8,000 hours of flying time, with nearly 500 hours in the 747. The cockpit crew was based at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]].<ref name="officialaaib" />

Six of the 13 cabin crew members became naturalized U.S. citizens while working for Pan Am. The cabin crew was based at Heathrow and lived in the London area or commuted from around Europe. All were originally hired by Pan Am and seniority ranged from 9 months to 28 years. The cabin crew consisted of Senior [[Purser]] Gerry Murphy (51) with 25 years' service at Pan Am, Purser Milutin Velimirovich (35) with 10 years' service, Siv Engstrom (51) with 28 years' service, Nicole Avoyne-Clemens (44) with 20 years' service, Elke Kuhne (43) with 18 years' service Noëlle Berti-Campbell (40) with 18 years' service, Maria Larracoechea (39) with 17 years' service, Irja Skabo (38) with 16 years' service, Paul Garrett (41) with 15 years' service, Lilibeth Macalolooy (27) with 3 years' service, Jocelyn Reina (26) with 1 year's service, Myra Royal (30) with 9 months' service, and Stacie Franklin (20) with 9 months' service.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySILjpP6uBk&feature=youtu.be |title=Crew Tribute: Pan Am 103 |date=2025-01-17 |last=Airline Chronicles |access-date=2025-04-30 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

The captain, first officer, flight engineer, a [[flight attendant]] and several first-class passengers were found still strapped to their seats inside the nose section when it crashed in Tundergarth. A flight attendant was found alive by a local woman, but died before help could be summoned.{{sfn|Cox|Foster|1992|p=67}} Some passengers may also have remained alive briefly after impact; a pathologist's report concluded that at least two of these passengers might have survived if they had received medical attention in time.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Busuttil|first1=Anthony|title=Lockerbie and Dunblane: Disasters and Dilemmas|journal=Medico-Legal Journal|date=25 June 2016|volume=66|issue=4|pages=126–140|doi=10.1177/002581729806600403|pmid=10069158|s2cid=5899972|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=31 January 1999 |title=Lockerbie pair 'could have survived' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/267865.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019014633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/267865.stm |archive-date=19 October 2015 |access-date=15 October 2015 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

===Passengers===

====Syracuse University students====
Thirty-five of the passengers were students from [[Syracuse University#1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103|Syracuse University]], who participated in the university's Division of International Programs Abroad (abbreviated as "DIPA Program" and renamed to "Syracuse University Abroad" in 2006, while also known as "Syracuse Abroad" and "Study Abroad Program") and were returning home for Christmas following a semester in Syracuse's London and European campuses. Ten of these students were from other universities and colleges (including but not limited to [[Colgate University]] and [[University of Colorado]]) having collaborative relationships with Syracuse. Several of the students were due to connect to Pan Am Express Flight 4919 to [[Syracuse Hancock International Airport]] at JFK Airport later that evening.

Many of their bodies were found at Rosebank Crescent, {{cvt|1/2|mi|1}} from Sherwood Crescent. The rear fuselage of the plane, where many of them sat, destroyed one of the houses of Rosebank Crescent, 71 Park Place, the home of Lockerbie resident Ella Ramsden, who survived. The bodies of two of these students were never recovered.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

====Notable passengers====
[[File:BerntCarlssonMemorial.jpg|thumb|Dryfesdale Cemetery memorial stone dedicated to [[Bernt Carlsson]]]]
Prominent among the passenger victims was the 50-year-old [[UN Commissioner for Namibia]] (then [[South West Africa]]), [[Bernt Carlsson]], who would have attended the signing ceremony of the [[New York Accords]] at the [[UN headquarters]] the following day.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/22/world/un-officer-on-flight-103.html |title=UN Officer on Flight 103 |date=22 December 1988 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=5 April 2009 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327092355/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/22/world/un-officer-on-flight-103.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[James Fuller (automobile executive)|James Fuller]], CEO of Volkswagen of America, was returning home together with marketing director Lou Marengo from a meeting with Volkswagen executives in Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davis, Jr. |first=David E. |date=26 October 2010 |title=Remembering Jim Fuller |url=https://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/a15128228/david-e-davis-jr-remembering-jim-fuller/ |website=Car and Driver}}</ref> Also aboard were Irish Olympic sailor [[Peter Dix]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Peter Dix|url=http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/61849|access-date=13 June 2020|website=www.olympedia.org|publisher=Olympedia|archive-date=13 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613005610/http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/61849|url-status=live}}</ref> rock musician [[Paul Jeffreys]] and his wife, Rachel Jeffreys (née Jones),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pauljeffreys.com/ |title=PaulJeffreys.com: website in the memory of Paul Jeffreys |access-date=30 July 2020 |archive-date=13 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813112225/http://pauljeffreys.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>
{{cite book | last = Talevski | first = Nick | title = Rock Obituaries: Knocking On Heaven's Door | publisher = Omnibus Press | date = 2010 | pages = 307–308 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DykffzkFALoC&q=Paul+Avron+Jeffreys+lockerbie+rachel+honeymoon&pg=PA307 | isbn =9780857121172 }}</ref> Dr. Irving Sigal, a molecular biologist,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/25/obituaries/dr-irving-sigal-molecular-biologist-35.html |title=Dr. Irving Sigal, Molecular Biologist, 35 |date=25 December 1988 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=21 October 2024 }}</ref> and Jonathan White, 33, an American accountant and son of [[David White (actor)|David White]], American actor who played Larry Tate on ''[[Bewitched]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hedges |first=Chris |title=Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle |publisher=Knopf Canada |location=Toronto |url=https://archive.org/details/empireofillusion0000hedg_j7j3/page/18/mode/2up?q=%22david+white%22 |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-3073-9846-8 |page=19}}</ref>

====US government officials====
Aboard the flight were [[Diplomatic Security Service]] (DSS) Special Agents Daniel Emmett O'Connor and Ronald Albert Lariviere.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Honoring DS Fallen: Ronald Albert Lariviere |url=https://www.state.gov/honoring-ds-fallen-ronald-albert-lariviere/ |access-date=12 December 2022 |website=United States Department of State |language=en-US |archive-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212180552/https://www.state.gov/honoring-ds-fallen-ronald-albert-lariviere/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Daniel Emmett O'Connor |url=https://www.state.gov/daniel-emmett-oconnor/ |access-date=12 December 2022 |website=United States Department of State |language=en-US |archive-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212180552/https://www.state.gov/daniel-emmett-oconnor/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Matthew Gannon]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s (CIA) deputy station chief in [[Beirut]], Lebanon, was sitting in seat 14J, which was located in the business class (branded as "Clipper Class") cabin.<ref>{{cite web |title=EverythingPanAm.com The Virtual Pan Am Museum |url=http://www.everythingpanam.com/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621022804/http://everythingpanam.com/index.html |archive-date=21 June 2009 |access-date=21 August 2009 |website=EverythingPanAm.com}}</ref> A group of US intelligence specialists was on board the flight. Their presence gave rise to speculations and [[Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories|conspiracy theories]] that one or more of them had been targeted.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Ashton |first1=John |last2=Ferguson |first2=Ian |title=Flight from the truth |date=27 June 2001 |work=The Guardian |location=UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/27/lockerbie.features11 |access-date=8 September 2008 |archive-date=10 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140510135313/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/27/lockerbie.features11 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Lockerbie residents===
[[File:Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie, Scotland, UK - present (2646920069).jpg|thumb|left|Wreckage of the plane landed in and around Lockerbie, including the residential street of Sherwood Crescent (pictured in 2008)]] 
Eleven Lockerbie residents on Sherwood Crescent were killed when the wing section hit the house at 13 Sherwood Crescent at more than {{convert|800|km/h|mi/h|abbr=on}} and exploded, creating a crater {{convert|47|m|ft|abbr=on}} long and with a volume of {{convert|560|m3|cuft cuyd|abbr=on}}.<ref name="officialaaib" /> The property was completely destroyed and its two occupants were killed. Their bodies were never found. Several other houses and their foundations were destroyed, and 21 others were damaged beyond repair.

A family of four was killed when their house at 15 Sherwood Crescent exploded.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lockerbie and the worst Christmas imaginable|url=https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/lockerbie-and-worst-christmas-imaginable-2468747|access-date=5 August 2021|website=www.scotsman.com|date=2 June 2006|language=en|archive-date=5 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805031827/https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/lockerbie-and-worst-christmas-imaginable-2468747|url-status=live}}</ref> A couple and their daughter were killed by the explosion in their house at 16 Sherwood Crescent. Their son witnessed a fireball engulfing his home from a neighbour's garage, where he had been repairing his sister's bicycle.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hill|first=Amelia|date=27 August 2000|title=Destroyed by the curse of Lockerbie|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/27/lockerbie.ameliahill|access-date=2 September 2013|issn=0029-7712|archive-date=14 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214082848/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/27/lockerbie.ameliahill|url-status=live}}</ref> The other Lockerbie residents who died were two widows aged 82 and 81, who also both lived in Sherwood Crescent; they were the two oldest victims of the disaster.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/12/pan_am_flight_103s_victims_a_list_of_those_killed_25_years_ago.html |title=Pan Am Flight 103's Victims: A list of Those Killed 25 Years Ago |date=21 December 2013 |work=Syracuse.com |access-date=17 December 2017 |archive-date=1 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201032216/http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/12/pan_am_flight_103s_victims_a_list_of_those_killed_25_years_ago.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Patrick Keegans, Lockerbie's [[Catholic]] priest, was preparing to visit friends around 7:00 that evening with his mother, having recently been appointed a parish priest of the town.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Craig |date=13 December 2018 |title=Lockerbie: The town scarred by Pan Am flight 103 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Lockerbie_Scotland_Pan_Am_flight_103 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213150751/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Lockerbie_Scotland_Pan_Am_flight_103 |archive-date=13 December 2018 |access-date=13 December 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Keegans' house at 1 Sherwood Crescent was the only one on the street that was not either destroyed by the impact or gutted by fire.<ref>Ross, Peter (21 December 2008). [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/lockerbie/Remembering-Lockerbie-20-years-on.4807617.jp Remembering Lockerbie 20 years on] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821193910/http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/lockerbie/Remembering-Lockerbie-20-years-on.4807617.jp |date=21 August 2009 }}. ''[[The Scotsman]]''.</ref> According to a BBC article on the fire published in 2018, Keegans had gone upstairs to make sure that he had hidden his mother's Christmas present, and recalls, "Immediately after that, there was an enormous explosion". Following this, "the shaking stopped and to his surprise he was uninjured". Keegans' mother was also unharmed, having been shielded from debris by a refrigerator-freezer.<ref name=":0" />

Many of the passengers' relatives, most of them from the US, arrived there within days to identify the dead. Volunteers from Lockerbie set up and staffed canteens which stayed open 24 hours a day and offered relatives, soldiers, police officers, and social workers free sandwiches, hot meals, beverages, and counselling. The people of the town washed, dried, and ironed every piece of clothing that was found once the police had determined they were of no forensic value, so that as many items as possible could be returned to the relatives. The [[BBC]]'s Scotland correspondent, Andrew Cassell, reported on the 10th anniversary of the bombing that the townspeople had "opened their homes and hearts" to the relatives, bearing their own losses "stoically and with enormous dignity", and that the bonds forged then continue to this day.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cassel|first=Andrew|date=21 December 1998|title=Reporter's reflections|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/lockerbie/236466.stm|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=3 June 2005|archive-date=29 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229211904/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/lockerbie/236466.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Prior alerts==
Two alerts were released shortly before the bombing.

===Helsinki warning===
On 5 December 1988 (16 days prior to the attack), the US [[Federal Aviation Administration]] (FAA) issued a security bulletin saying that, on that day, a man with an [[Arabic]] accent had telephoned the [[Embassy of the United States, Helsinki|US Embassy in Helsinki]], [[Finland]], and told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Palestinian militant [[Abu Nidal Organization]]; he said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier.<ref>{{cite web |author=President's Commission on Aviation Safety and Terrorism |title=Report of the President's Commission on Aviation Safety and Terrorism |work=Executive Order 12686 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |date=15 May 1990 |page=8 |url=http://www.policyfutures.com/PCAST/PCASTreport.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040722031807/http://policyfutures.com/PCAST/PCASTreport.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 July 2004 |access-date=15 May 2014 }}</ref>

The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the US government and the [[State Department]] cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies. The FAA sent it to all US carriers, including Pan Am, which had charged each of the passengers a $5 security surcharge, promising a "program that will screen passengers, employees, airport facilities, baggage, and aircraft with unrelenting thoroughness";<ref>''The Independent'', 29 March 1990</ref> the security team in Frankfurt found the warning under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing.{{sfn|Cox|Foster|1992}} One of the Frankfurt security screeners, whose job was to spot explosive devices under X-ray, told [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] that she had first learned what [[Semtex]] (a plastic explosive) was during her ABC interview 11 months after the bombing.<ref>''Prime Time Live'', November 1989</ref>

On 13 December, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the [[Embassy of the United States, Moscow|US Embassy in Moscow]] and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists and businessmen.<ref>Arkedis, Jim: [https://www.progressivepolicy.org/issues/explaining-the-europe-terror-alert/ Explaining the Europe Terror Alert] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427112314/https://www.progressivepolicy.org/issues/explaining-the-europe-terror-alert/ |date=27 April 2019 }}, ''[[Progressive Policy Institute]]'', 10 May 2010</ref>

===PLO's warning===
Just days before the bombing, security forces in European countries, including the UK, were put on alert after a warning from the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO) that extremists might launch terrorist attacks to undermine the then-ongoing dialogue between the United States and the PLO.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/bomb-fear-in-uks-worst-air-disaster-670qb5v7df9 |title=Bomb fear in UK's worst air disaster |date=22 December 1988 |work=The Times|access-date=15 January 2025 | location=London | first1=Harvey | last1=Elliott | first2=David | last2=Sapsted}}</ref>

==Claims of responsibility==
[[File:CIAPA103D.jpg|thumb|upright|CIA analysis of various claims of responsibility for the bombing]]

On the day of the bombing, the French [[Directorate-General for External Security]] was informed by their British counterpart [[MI6]] that the UK suspected the Libyans to be behind the bombing.<ref>Attali, Jacques (1995), Verbatim, Volume 3, Paris, Fayard</ref>

According to a CIA analysis dated 22 December 1988, several groups were quick to claim responsibility in telephone calls in the United States and Europe:
* A male caller claimed that a group called the "Guardians of the Islamic Revolution" had destroyed the plane in retaliation for [[Iran Air Flight 655]] being shot down by US forces in the Persian Gulf the previous July.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 January 1989 |title=The World - News from Jan. 8, 1989 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-08-mn-221-story.html |access-date=27 May 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Engelberg |first1=Stephen |date=25 February 1989 |title=U.S. Suspects Iran Unit In the Pan Am Bombing |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/25/world/us-suspects-iran-unit-in-the-pan-am-bombing.html |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
* A caller claiming to represent the [[Islamic Jihad Organization]] told [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] in New York that the group had planted the bomb to commemorate [[Christmas]].<ref name="CIA document" />
* Another caller claimed the plane had been downed by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.<ref name="CIA document">{{cite web|url=http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000427163/0000427163_0002.gif |title=CIA document |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060201124253/http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000427163/0000427163_0002.gif |archive-date=1 February 2006 }}</ref><ref name="foia.cia.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000427163/0000427163_0003.gif |title=CIA document |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015140104/http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000427163/0000427163_0003.gif |archive-date=15 October 2012 }}</ref>
The list's author noted, "We consider the claims from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as the most credible one received so far," but the analysis concluded, "We cannot assign responsibility for this tragedy to any terrorist group at this time. We anticipate that, as often happens, many groups will seek to claim credit."<ref name="CIA document"/><ref name="foia.cia.gov"/>

In 2003, under pressure from international sanctions, [[Muammar Gaddafi]] took responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, as leader of his government, and paid compensation to the victims' families, while maintaining that he personally had not ordered the attack.<ref name=BBC/> On 22 February 2011, during the [[2011 Libyan Civil War|Libyan Civil War]], former Minister of Justice [[Mustafa Abdul Jalil]] stated in an interview with the Swedish newspaper ''Expressen'' that Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Muammar Gaddafi ordered Lockerbie bombing, says Libyan minister|url=http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/muammar-gaddafi-ordered-lockerbie-bombing-says-libyan-minister/story-e6frfku0-1226011070628|access-date=23 February 2011|newspaper=news.com.au|date=24 February 2011|archive-date=26 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226121645/http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/muammar-gaddafi-ordered-lockerbie-bombing-says-libyan-minister/story-e6frfku0-1226011070628|url-status=dead}} citing an original interview with [[Expressen]] in Sweden: {{Cite news|title=Khadaffi gav order om Lockerbie-attentatet [Gaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing]|url=http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2341356/khadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet|access-date=23 February 2011|date=23 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226032909/http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2341356/khadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet|archive-date=26 February 2011|url-status=dead}} [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2341356/khadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet&ei=M1FlTc-NCsqBOqz6mJUG&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2341356/khadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dopera%26hs%3DsZz%26rls%3Den%26channel%3Dsuggest%26prmd%3Divns English translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511012239/https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressen.se%2Fnyheter%2F1.2341356%2Fkhadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet&ei=M1FlTc-NCsqBOqz6mJUG&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ7gEwAA&prev=%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressen.se%2Fnyheter%2F1.2341356%2Fkhadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dopera%26hs%3DsZz%26rls%3Den%26channel%3Dsuggest%26prmd%3Divns |date=11 May 2017 }}</ref> Jalil claimed to possess "documents that prove [his allegations] and [that he is] ready to hand them over to the international criminal court."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Libya rebel leader: I have evidence Gaddafi ordered Lockerbie|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8380133/Libya-rebel-leader-I-have-evidence-Gaddafi-ordered-Lockerbie.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316151717/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8380133/Libya-rebel-leader-I-have-evidence-Gaddafi-ordered-Lockerbie.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 March 2011|access-date=10 June 2012|newspaper=telegraph.co.uk|date=14 March 2011|location=London}}</ref>

==Investigation==
{{Main|Pan Am Flight 103 bombing investigation}}

The original prime suspect in the bombing was the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command]] (PFLP-GC), a Syria-based group led by [[Ahmed Jibril]].<ref>
{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122390838 |title=Pan Am 103: two suspects expected to be charged |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=66 |issue=20,670 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=15 November 1991 |accessdate=20 December 2024 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref><ref>
{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/261623487 |title=Doubts on Lockerbie |newspaper=[[The Australian Jewish News]] |volume=97 |issue=13 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=29 November 1991 |accessdate=20 December 2024 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> 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. Time frame is present. Targets specified are Pan Am Airlines and US military bases.' Five weeks before this warning, Jibril's right-hand man, Haffez Dalkamoni, had been arrested in Frankfurt with a known bomb-maker, Marwen Khreesat. "Later US intelligence officials confirmed that members of the group had been monitoring Pan Am's facilities at Frankfurt airport. On Dalkamoni's account bombs made by Khreesat were at large somewhere."<ref>[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n18/gareth-pierce/the-framing-of-al-megrahi Gareth Pierce,24 September 2009, London Review of Books]</ref> A deep-cover [[CIA]] agent was told by up to 15 high-level [[Syria]]n officials that the PFLP-GC was involved and that officials interacted with Jibril "on a constant basis".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/news/lockerbie-bombing-libya-palestine-cia-murder-thatcher|title=Secret CIA testimony identifies real Lockerbie mastermind|work=Channel 4 News|date=20 December 2013|access-date=20 December 2013|archive-date=20 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220224944/http://www.channel4.com/news/lockerbie-bombing-libya-palestine-cia-murder-thatcher|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2014, an Iranian ex-spy asserted that Iran ordered the attack.<ref>J Post, 11 March 2014 [http://www.jpost.com/International/Iranian-ex-spy-to-Al-Jazeera-Khomeini-ordered-downing-of-Pan-Am-flight-103-344994] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311180627/http://www.jpost.com/International/Iranian-ex-spy-to-Al-Jazeera-Khomeini-ordered-downing-of-Pan-Am-flight-103-344994|date=11 March 2014}}, Daily Telegraph, 10 March 2014 [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10688179/Lockerbie-bombing-are-these-the-men-who-really-brought-down-Pan-Am-103.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715064410/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10688179/Lockerbie-bombing-are-these-the-men-who-really-brought-down-Pan-Am-103.html|date=15 July 2018}}</ref> The Iranian foreign ministry swiftly denied any involvement.<ref>{{cite web |date=12 March 2014 |title=Iran denies new Lockerbie bombing claims |url=http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/03/12/iran-denies-new-lockerbie-bombing-claims |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924133248/http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/03/12/iran-denies-new-lockerbie-bombing-claims |archive-date=24 September 2015 |access-date=15 October 2015 |website=SBS News |publisher=Sbs.com.au}}</ref>

===Civil investigation===

====Crash site====
[[File:Lockcassette.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Compact Cassette|Cassette]] player similar to the one used in the disaster]]

The initial investigation into the crash site by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary involved many helicopter surveys, satellite imaging, and a search of the area by police and soldiers. The wreckage of the crash was scattered over {{convert|2000|km2|sqmi|}}, and AAIB investigators were confronted by a massive jigsaw puzzle in trying to piece the plane back together. In total, 4 million pieces of wreckage were collected and registered on computer files. More than 10,000 pieces of debris were retrieved, tagged, and entered into a computer tracking system. The perpetrators had apparently intended the plane to crash into the sea, destroying any traceable evidence, but <!--the late departure time (contrary to statement, with reference, [[#Flight|above]]), this conflicts with the "Flight" section earlier. Was it late, or just poor calculations by the bombers? of the aircraft meant that --> its explosion over land left a trail of evidence.<ref name="katz">Katz, Samuel M. "Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the manhunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists", 2002.</ref>

The fuselage of the aircraft was reconstructed by air accident investigators, revealing a {{convert|20|in|mm|adj=on}} hole consistent with an explosion in the forward cargo hold. Examination of the baggage containers revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening, pitting, and severe damage, indicating a "high-energy event" had taken place inside it. A series of test explosions was carried out to confirm the precise location and quantity of explosive used.

Fragments of a [[Samsonite]] suitcase believed to have contained the bomb were recovered, together with parts and pieces of circuit board identified as components of a [[Toshiba]] 'Bombeat' RT-SF16<!--- or was it a "453 radio cassette recorder"? /--->, radio cassette player, similar to that used to conceal a Semtex bomb seized by West German police from the Palestinian militant group PFLP-GC two months earlier. Items of baby clothing, which were subsequently proven to have been made in Malta, were thought to have come from the same suitcase.

====Witnesses====
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. Gauci was interviewed 23 times, giving contradictory evidence about who had bought the clothes, that person's age and appearance, and the date of purchase, but later identified [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]]. As Megrahi had only been in Malta on 7 December, that date was assumed to be the purchase date. However, this date is in doubt, as Gauci had testified that Malta's Christmas lights had not been on when the clothes had been purchased; the lights were later found to have been switched on on 6 December. Scottish police had also failed to inform the defense that another witness had testified seeing Libyan men making a similar purchase on a different day.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/02/lockerbie-documents-witness-megrahi|title=US paid reward to Lockerbie witness, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi papers claim|work=[[The Guardian]]|first=Severin|last=Carrell|date=2 October 2009|access-date=29 August 2022|archive-date=24 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024003720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/02/lockerbie-documents-witness-megrahi|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Pan Am Flight 103 (1990) N739PA - Figure B-17 Fuselage three-dimensional reconstruction.jpg|thumb|left|Fuselage three-dimensional reconstruction]]

An official report, providing information not made available to the defense during the original trial, stated that on 19 April 1999, four days before identifying al-Megrahi for the first time, Gauci had seen a picture of al-Megrahi in a magazine that connected him to the bombing, a fact that could have distorted his judgement.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cowell|first=Alan|date=29 June 2007|title=Scottish Panel Challenges Lockerbie Conviction|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=24 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824131001/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Gauci was shown the same magazine during his testimony at al-Megrahi's trial and asked if he had identified the photograph in April 1999 as being the person who purchased the clothing; he was then asked if that person was in the court. Gauci then identified al-Megrahi for the court, stating "He is the man on this side. He resembles him a lot".<ref>[http://www.megrahimystory.net/downloads/Professor%20Steve%20Clark%27s%20report%2018%2012%2008.pdf? Report on Identification Procedures: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi v. H.M. Advocate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123072131/http://www.megrahimystory.net/downloads/Professor%20Steve%20Clark%27s%20report%2018%2012%2008.pdf |date=23 November 2011 }} Report of Steven E. Clark, Professor of Psychology at the University of California. (retained by counsel for al-Megrahi to investigate procedures used to identify al-Megrahi)</ref>

A circuit board fragment, allegedly found embedded in a piece of charred material, was identified as part of an electronic timer similar to one found on a Libyan intelligence agent who had been arrested 10 months previously for carrying materials for a [[Semtex]] bomb. The timer was allegedly traced through its Swiss manufacturer, [[Mebo Telecommunications|Mebo]], to the Libyan military, and Mebo employee [[Ulrich Lumpert]] identified the fragment at al-Megrahi's trial.

Mebo's owner, [[Edwin Bollier]], testified at the trial that the Scottish police had originally shown him a fragment of a brown eight-ply circuit board from a [[prototype]] timer which had never been supplied to Libya. Yet the sample he was asked to identify at the trial was a green nine-ply circuit board that Mebo had indeed supplied to Libya. Bollier wanted to pursue this discrepancy, but was told by trial judge Lord Sutherland that he could not do so.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mebocom-defilee.ch/affair.html |title=Mebo website |publisher=Mebocom-defilee.ch |access-date=5 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923140848/http://www.mebocom-defilee.ch/affair.html |archive-date=23 September 2009 }}</ref> Bollier claimed that in 1991 he had declined an offer of US$4 million from the FBI (equivalent to US${{Inflation|US-GDP|4|1991
|fmt=c|r=1}} million in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}} dollars) in exchange for his support of the main line of inquiry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/fbi-offered-me-4m-lockerbie-bomb-witness-1-694208 |title=FBI offered me $4m: Lockerbie bomb witness |publisher=The Scotsman |access-date=15 October 2015 |archive-date=6 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006000020/http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/fbi-offered-me-4m-lockerbie-bomb-witness-1-694208 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Criminal inquiry===
Known as the '''Lockerbie bombing''' and the '''Lockerbie air disaster''' in the UK, it was described by Scotland's [[Lord Advocate]] as the UK's largest criminal inquiry led by the smallest police force in Britain, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/Boyd.pdf |title=The Lockerbie Trial |author=The Rt Hon Colin Boyd QC |access-date=10 November 2008 |author-link=Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217192311/http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/Boyd.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US FBI, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for murder were issued on 13 November 1991 against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for [[Libyan Airways|Libyan Arab Airlines]] (LAA), and [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]], the LAA station manager in [[Malta International Airport|Luqa Airport]], Malta. UN sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on 5 April 1999 to Scottish police at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands, which was selected as a neutral venue for their trial.

Both of the accused chose not to give evidence in court. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to life imprisonment, but Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was refused on 14 March 2002, and his application to the [[European Court of Human Rights]] was declared inadmissible in July 2003. On 23 September 2003, Megrahi applied to the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] (SCCRC) for his conviction to be reviewed, and on 28 June 2007, the SCCRC announced its decision to refer the case to the [[High Court of Justiciary]] in Edinburgh after it found he "may have suffered a miscarriage of justice".<ref>[http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=293 SCCRC Referral of Megrahi case for 2nd appeal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503204553/http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=293 |date=3 May 2011 }}. [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]]. 28 June 2007.</ref>

Megrahi served more than 10 years of his sentence (beginning 5 April 1999),<ref>Transcript of the proceedings of the Scottish court in the Netherlands 2001, day 86</ref> first in Barlinnie prison, Glasgow, and later in Greenock prison, Renfrewshire, throughout which time he maintained that he was innocent of the charges against him. He was released from prison on [[compassionate grounds]] on 20 August 2009.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8216589.stm |title=Megrahi release 'right decision' |access-date=15 September 2009 |work=BBC News |date=23 August 2009 |archive-date=15 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015201058/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8216589.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In October 2015, Scottish prosecutors announced that they wanted to interview two Libyan nationals, whom they had identified as new suspects, over the bombing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34543983 |title=Two new Lockerbie bombing suspects identified – BBC News |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=15 October 2015 |access-date=15 October 2015 |archive-date=15 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015165643/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34543983 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news |date=21 December 2020 |title=New Charges in Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing |url=https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/new-charges-in-pan-am-flight-103-bombing-122120 |work=FBI |access-date=9 May 2021 |archive-date=18 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618053212/https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/new-charges-in-pan-am-flight-103-bombing-122120 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 11 December 2022, the United States advised they had [[Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi]] in custody.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gretener |first=Gabby |date=11 December 2022 |title=Lockerbie bombing suspect is now in US custody, Scottish authorities say |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/11/uk/lockerbie-bombing-suspect-custody-intl/index.html |access-date=11 December 2022 |archive-date=11 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211135404/https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/11/uk/lockerbie-bombing-suspect-custody-intl/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Aftermath====
Following the bombing, as information emerged that warnings had been received, many people, both relatives of the victims as well as the general public, were outraged at the FAA and airlines for not disclosing information. Frustrated with a lack of accountability from government officials and agencies, the families of the victims created a lobbyist/support group known as "Victims of Pan Am Flight 103". This group, with the support of United States Senator [[Alfonse D'Amato]] of New York, in hearings before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, offered the group's prepared statement for inclusion in the record of the hearings.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Assimotos |first1=Janet E. |title=To Warn or Not to Warn: The Airlines' Duty to Disclose Terrorist Threats to Passengers |journal=Journal of Air Law and Commerce |date=1991 |volume=56 |issue=4 |url=https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1936&context=jalc |access-date=29 February 2024 |archive-date=16 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216081216/https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1936&context=jalc |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Trial, appeals, and release==
{{Main|Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial}}
On 3 May 2000, the trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah began. Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder on 31 January 2001, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Scotland; his co-defendant, Fhimah, was found not guilty.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Verdict of the Scottish Court in the Netherlands, 31 January 2001 – from the official transcript|url=http://i-p-o.org/Lockerbie_Verdict-31Jan2001.htm|website=i-p-o.org|archive-date=8 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108083233/http://i-p-o.org/Lockerbie_Verdict-31Jan2001.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Lockerbie judgment stated: {{blockquote|From the evidence which we have discussed so far, we are satisfied that it has been proved that the primary suitcase containing the explosive device was dispatched from Malta, passed through Frankfurt, and was loaded onto PA103 at Heathrow. It is, as we have said, clear that with one exception, the clothing in the primary suitcase was the clothing purchased in Mr Gauci's shop on 7 December 1988. The purchaser was, on Mr Gauci's evidence, a Libyan. The trigger for the explosion was an MST-13 timer of the single solder mask variety. A substantial quantity of such timers had been supplied to Libya. We cannot say that it is impossible that the clothing might have been taken from Malta, united somewhere with a timer from some source other than Libya and introduced into the airline baggage system at Frankfurt or Heathrow. When, however, the evidence regarding the clothing, the purchaser, and the timer is taken with the evidence that an unaccompanied bag was taken from KM180 to PA103A, the inference that that was the primary suitcase becomes, in our view, irresistible. As we have also said, the absence of an explanation as to how the suitcase was taken into the system at Luqa is a major difficulty for the Crown case, but after taking full account of that difficulty, we remain of the view that the primary suitcase began its journey at Luqa. The clear inference which we draw from this evidence is that the conception, planning and execution of the plot which led to the planting of the explosive device was of Libyan origin. While no doubt organisations such as the [[PFLP-GC]] and the [[Palestinian Popular Struggle Front|PPSF]] were also engaged in terrorist activities during the same period, we are satisfied that there was no evidence from which we could infer that they were involved in this particular act of terrorism, and the evidence relating to their activities does not create a reasonable doubt in our minds about the Libyan origin of this crime.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/LockerbieVerdict.html |title=Lockerbie Verdict (paragraph 82) |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=18 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918141943/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/LockerbieVerdict.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

===Appeal===
The defense team had 14 days in which to appeal against Megrahi's conviction, and an additional six weeks to submit the full grounds of the appeal. These were considered by a judge sitting in private who decided to grant Megrahi leave to appeal. The only basis for an appeal under [[Scots law]] is that a "[[miscarriage of justice]]" had occurred, which is not defined in statute, so the appeal court must determine the meaning of these words in each case.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1764532.stm |title=14 days to launch appeal |work=BBC News |date=14 March 2002 |access-date=5 June 2010 |archive-date=18 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218021035/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1764532.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Because three judges and one alternate judge had presided over the trial, five judges were required to preside over the [[Court of Criminal Appeal (Scotland)|Court of Criminal Appeal]]: [[William Cullen, Baron Cullen of Whitekirk|Lord Cullen, Lord Justice-General]], Lord Kirkwood, [[Kenneth Osborne, Lord Osborne|Lord Osborne]], Lord Macfadyen, and [[William Nimmo Smith, Lord Nimmo Smith|Lord Nimmo Smith]].

In what was described as a milestone in Scottish legal history, Lord Cullen granted the BBC permission in January 2002 to televise the appeal, and to broadcast it on the Internet in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation.

William Taylor QC, leading the defense, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the judge. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the defense claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, which the judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the prosecution's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. That evidence, which was not heard at the trial, showed that at some time in the two hours before 00:35 on 21 December 1988, a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access air side in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport, near to the area referred to at the trial as the "baggage build-up area". Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1778449.stm|title=Grounds of appeal|work=BBC News|date=14 March 2002|access-date=5 June 2010|archive-date=17 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217223240/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1778449.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 14 March 2002, Lord Cullen took less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Judiciary. The five judges rejected the appeal, ruling unanimously that "none of the grounds of appeal was well-founded", adding "this brings proceedings to an end". The following day, a helicopter took Megrahi from Camp Zeist to continue his life sentence in Barlinnie Prison, [[Glasgow]].

===SCCRC review===
Megrahi's lawyers applied to the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] (SCCRC) on 23 September 2003 to have his case referred back to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a fresh appeal against conviction. The application to the SCCRC followed the publication of two reports in February 2001 and March 2002 by Hans Köchler, who had been an international observer at Camp Zeist, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Köchler described the decisions of the trial and appeal courts as a "spectacular miscarriage of justice".<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1872996.stm |title=UN monitor decries Lockerbie judgement |date=14 March 2002 |access-date=3 January 2010 |work=BBC News |archive-date=29 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829215959/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1872996.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Köchler also issued a series of statements in 2003, 2005, and 2007 calling for an independent international inquiry into the case and accusing the West of "double standards in criminal justice" in relation to the Lockerbie trial on the one hand and the [[HIV trial in Libya]] on the other.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://i-p-o.org/koechler-lockerbie-statement-aug2003.htm |title=Dr Hans Köchler's statement, August 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303070959/http://www.i-p-o.org/Koechler-Lockerbie-statement-Aug2003.htm |archive-date=3 March 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://i-p-o.org/nr-lockerbie-14Oct05.htm |title=Dr Hans Köchler's statement, October 2005 |access-date=14 June 2007 |archive-date=14 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314093637/http://i-p-o.org/nr-lockerbie-14Oct05.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://i-p-o.org/Koechler-EU-Lockerbie-Bulgaria-14Feb07.pdf |title=Double standards in criminal justice: Pan Am Flight 103 v. HIV trial in Libya |access-date=14 June 2007 |archive-date=16 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070616115608/http://i-p-o.org/Koechler-EU-Lockerbie-Bulgaria-14Feb07.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 28 June 2007, the SCCRC announced its decision to refer Megrahi's case to the High Court for a second appeal against conviction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=293 |title=SCCRC refers Megrahi's case for second appeal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503204553/http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=293 |archive-date=3 May 2011 }}</ref> The SCCRC's decision was based on facts set out in an 800-page report that determined that "a miscarriage of justice may have occurred".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html |title=SCCRC decides "a miscarriage of justice may have occurred" |work=The New York Times |first=Alan |last=Cowell |date=29 June 2007 |access-date=21 May 2010 |archive-date=24 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824131001/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Köchler criticized the SCCRC for exonerating police, prosecutors and forensic staff from blame in respect of Megrahi's alleged wrongful conviction. He told ''[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]'' of 29 June 2007: "No officials to be blamed, simply a Maltese shopkeeper."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://i-p-o.org/koechler-lockerbie-referral-29June2007.htm |title=Statement by Dr Hans Köchler on SCCRC decision, 29 June 2007 |access-date=2 July 2007 |archive-date=29 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083341/http://i-p-o.org/koechler-lockerbie-referral-29June2007.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Köchler also highlighted the role of intelligence services in the trial and stated that proper judicial proceedings could not be conducted under conditions in which extrajudicial forces are allowed to intervene.<ref>[http://i-p-o.org/IPO-nr-Lockerbie-5Oct07.htm Lockerbie trial: an intelligence operation? BBC interview of Dr. Hans Köchler] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100325063904/http://i-p-o.org/IPO-nr-Lockerbie-5Oct07.htm |date=25 March 2010 }}. 5 October 2007.</ref>

===Second appeal===
A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court took place on 11 October 2007 when prosecution lawyers and Megrahi's defense counsel, [[Margaret Scott (lawyer)|Maggie Scott QC]], discussed a number of legal issues with a panel of three judges.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/scotland/7037821.stm Lockerbie bomber in fresh appeal]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080407191142/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/scotland/7037821.stm |date=7 April 2008 }}</ref> One of the issues concerned a number of documents that were shown before the trial to the prosecution, but were not disclosed to the defense. The documents are understood to relate to the [[Mebo Telecommunications|Mebo]] MST-13 timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7023397.stm |title=Secret Lockerbie report claim |work=BBC News |date=2 October 2007 |access-date=3 January 2010 |archive-date=31 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531124931/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7023397.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Maggie Scott also asked for documents relating to an alleged payment of $2&nbsp;million made to Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, for his testimony at the trial, which led to the conviction of Megrahi.<ref>Carrell, Severin (3 October 2007). [https://www.theguardian.com/Lockerbie/Story/0,,2182343,00.html Fresh doubts on Lockerbie conviction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214123412/http://www.guardian.co.uk/Lockerbie/Story/0%2C%2C2182343%2C00.html |date=14 December 2007 }}. ''The Guardian''.</ref>

On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the [[Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service|Crown Office]], which sought to limit the scope of Megrahi's second appeal to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2008HCJAC58.html |title=Judgement on the scope of Megrahi's second appeal |publisher=Scotcourts.gov.uk |access-date=5 June 2010 |archive-date=23 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823042207/http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2008HCJAC58.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In January 2009, it was reported that, although Megrahi's second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin in April 2009, the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2481827.0.Secret_talks_on_deal_to_return_Megrahi_to_Libya.php |title=Secret talks on deal to return Megrahi to Libya |author=Lucy Adams |date=15 January 2009 |work=[[Glasgow Herald]] |access-date=15 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129073546/http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2481827.0.Secret_talks_on_deal_to_return_Megrahi_to_Libya.php |archive-date=29 January 2009 }}</ref> The second appeal began on 28 April 2009, lasted for one month and was adjourned in May 2009. On 7 July 2009, the court reassembled for a procedural hearing and was told that because of the illness of one of the judges, Lord Wheatley, who was recovering from heart surgery, the final two substantive appeal sessions would run from 2 November to 11 December 2009, and 12 January to 26 February 2010. Megrahi's lawyer Maggie Scott expressed dismay at the delays: "There is a very serious danger that my client will die before the case is determined."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/lockerbie-megrahi-appeal-will-not-be-heard-until-next-year-1.914180 |title=Lockerbie: Megrahi appeal will not be heard until next year |date=8 July 2009 |work=[[Glasgow Herald]] |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=20 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620061058/http://www.heraldscotland.com/lockerbie-megrahi-appeal-will-not-be-heard-until-next-year-1.914180 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Compassionate release and controversy===
{{Further|Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi}}
On 25 July 2009, Megrahi applied to be released from jail on compassionate grounds.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/timeline-abdul-baset-ali-al-megrahi-and-the-lockerbie-bombing-gvcfqmhw6l3 |title=Timeline: Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi and the Lockerbie bombing |date=13 August 2009 |work=The Times|author=Steve Bird |access-date=15 January 2025 |location=London}}</ref> Three weeks later, on 12 August 2009, Megrahi applied to have his second appeal dropped and was granted compassionate release for his terminal prostate cancer.<ref>[http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2008HCJAC58.html Summary of the opinion of the court in appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi against Her Majesty's Advocate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823042207/http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2008HCJAC58.html |date=23 August 2009 }}. Scottish Courts.</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8201213.stm What are the grounds for compassionate leave from prison?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090816110447/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8201213.stm |date=16 August 2009 }}. [[BBC News]]. 14 August 2009.</ref> On 20 August 2009, Megrahi was released from prison and traveled by chartered jet to Libya.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/8197370.stm |title=Lockerbie bomber freed from jail |work=BBC News |date=20 August 2009 |access-date=23 August 2009 |archive-date=23 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823102107/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/8197370.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8213352.stm |title=Anger at Lockerbie bomber welcome |work=BBC News |date=21 August 2009 |access-date=23 August 2009 |archive-date=7 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107181228/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8213352.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM0NTI4NTU2MA== Megrahi 'hero's welcome' triggers a diplomatic row]. ''[[Kuwait Times]]''. 22 August 2009. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828103316/http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM0NTI4NTU2MA%3D%3D |date=28 August 2009 }}</ref>
His survival beyond the approximate "three-month" prognosis generated some controversy. It is believed that, following his release, Al-Megrahi was prescribed [[abiraterone]] and [[prednisone]], a combination that extends [[Cancer survival rates|median survival]] by an average of 14.8 months. After hospital treatment ended, he returned to his family home. Following his release, Megrahi published evidence on the Internet that was gathered for the abandoned second appeal which he claimed would clear his name.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.megrahimystory.net/ |title=Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi – My Story |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=22 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922200009/http://www.megrahimystory.net/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Allegations have been made that the UK government and [[BP]] sought Al-Megrahi's release as part of a trade deal with Libya. In 2008, the UK government "decided to 'do all it could' to help the Libyans get Al-Megrahi home ... and explained the legal procedure for compassionate release to the Libyans."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-07/brown-bp-cleared-of-lobbying-scots-to-free-bomber.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213004351/http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-07/brown-bp-cleared-of-lobbying-scots-to-free-bomber.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 February 2011|title=Brown, BP Cleared of Lobbying Scots to Free Bomber|work=BusinessWeek|date=7 February 2011|access-date=8 February 2011}}</ref>

Megrahi was released on license, so was obliged to remain in regular contact with [[East Renfrewshire|East Renfrewshire Council]]. On 26 August 2011, it was announced that the whereabouts of Al-Megrahi were unknown due to the social upheaval in Libya and that he had not been in contact for some time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics/Libya-Scottish-officials-still-in.6825374.jp| title=Libya-Scottish-officials|access-date=25 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927032718/http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics/Libya-Scottish-officials-still-in.6825374.jp |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref> On 29 August, it was reported that he had been located and both the Scottish government and the council issued a statement confirming that they had been in contact with his family and that his license had not been breached. [[Member of Parliament|MP]] [[Andrew Mitchell]] said Al-Megrahi was [[coma]]tose and near death. CNN reporter [[Nic Robertson]] said he was "just a shell of the man he once was" and was surviving on oxygen and an [[Intravenous therapy|intravenous drip]].<ref name=":1" /> In an interview on [[BBC Radio 5 Live]], former US ambassador to the United Nations [[John R. Bolton|John Bolton]] called for Al-Megrahi to be extradited.

<blockquote>To me it will be a signal of how serious the rebel government is for good relations with the United States and the West if they hand over Megrahi for trial.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>

Mohammed al-Alagi, justice minister for the new leadership in [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], said "the council would not allow any Libyan to be deported to face trial in another country ... Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has already been judged once, and will not be judged again."<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=29 August 2011 |title=Lockerbie Bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is 'in Coma' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14705004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128072220/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14705004 |archive-date=28 November 2018 |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> Megrahi died of prostate cancer in Libya on 20 May 2012.<ref name=BBC205>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18137896|title=Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi dies in Tripoli|date=20 May 2012|work=BBC News|access-date=20 May 2012|archive-date=20 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520192607/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18137896|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Scottish First Minister]] [[Alex Salmond]] said that people should use the occasion to remember the Lockerbie victims.<ref name=BBC205/>

== 2020 indictment ==
In 2020, US authorities indicted Libyan national [[Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi]] for participating in the bombing.<ref name="auto"/> In December 2022, the United States government obtained custody of 71-year-old Mas'ud.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 December 2022 |title=Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-63933837.amp |access-date=11 December 2022 |website=BBC |archive-date=11 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211123341/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-63933837.amp |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=22 December 2022|title=The U.S. has taken custody of the alleged bomb maker in the 1988 Lockerbie attack|url=https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/1142121111/lockerbie-plane-bombing-arrest-pan-am-flight-103|access-date=11 December 2022|website=NPR|archive-date=11 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211145146/https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/1142121111/lockerbie-plane-bombing-arrest-pan-am-flight-103|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to ''[[The New York Times]]'', Mas'ud was born in [[Tunisia]] in 1951, before he became a citizen of Libya as a child after he moved to Tripoli, Libya.<ref>{{Cite web|date=12 December 2022|title=U.S. Unseals Charges Against New Suspect in 1988 Lockerbie Bombing, and who is Mas'ud?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/us/politics/lockerbie-bombing-suspect.html|access-date=11 December 2022|website=NYT|archive-date=11 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211130333/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/us/politics/lockerbie-bombing-suspect.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Beginning at the age of 22 in 1973, he began working with bombs for the [[Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya|Libyan intelligence service]] for the next 38 years. Shortly after finishing his longtime run at the job, Mas'ud was arrested and imprisoned in [[Misurata, Libya]] before being moved to Al-Hadba prison in Tripoli, which happened shortly after the fall of [[Muammar Gaddafi|Gaddafi]] in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|date=12 December 2022|title=U.S. Unseals Charges Against New Suspect in 1988 Lockerbie Bombing, and who is Mas'ud?|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lockerbie-bombing-suspect-abu-agila-mohammad-masud-court/|access-date=11 December 2022|website=CBS News|archive-date=12 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212230347/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lockerbie-bombing-suspect-abu-agila-mohammad-masud-court/|url-status=live}}</ref>

After the United States government obtained custody of Mas'ud, heads of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committees of the [[House of Representatives (Libya)|Libyan Parliament]], Talal al-Mihoub and Youssef al-Aqouri, demanded an urgent investigation into the extradition of Mas'ud, calling it a blatant violation of national sovereignty and an infringement of the rights of the Libyan citizen. They stressed that the case file had been completely closed politically and legally, according to the text of the agreement signed between the United States and Libya in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web|date=12 December 2022|title=Libyan Parliament calls for urgent investigation into Masud's extradition to US|url=https://libyaupdate.com/libyan-parliament-calls-for-urgent-investigation-into-masuds-extradition-to-us-2/|access-date=13 December 2022|website=The Libya Update|archive-date=14 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221214185415/https://libyaupdate.com/libyan-parliament-calls-for-urgent-investigation-into-masuds-extradition-to-us-2/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Alleged motives==

===Libya===
[[File:Libya-kart3.svg|thumb|Gulf of Sidra]]

Until 2002, Libya had never formally admitted to carrying out the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. On 16 August 2003, Libya formally admitted responsibility for Pan Am Flight 103 in a letter presented to the president of the [[United Nations Security Council]]. Felicity Barringer of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said that the letter had "general language that lacked any expression of remorse" for the people killed in the bombing.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Barringer|first=Felicity|date=16 August 2003|title=Libya Admits Culpability In Crash of Pan Am Plane|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/16/world/libya-admits-culpability-in-crash-of-pan-am-plane.html|access-date=10 September 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=21 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221192727/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/16/world/libya-admits-culpability-in-crash-of-pan-am-plane.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The letter stated that it "accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/sc7868.doc.htm |title=Security Council lifts sanctions imposed on Libya after terrorist bombings of Pan Am 103 and UTA 772 |access-date=29 June 2017 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224103702/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/sc7868.doc.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The motive that is generally attributed to Libya can be traced back to a series of military confrontations with the [[US Navy]] that took place in the 1980s in the [[Gulf of Sidra]], the whole of which Libya claimed as its territorial waters. First, there was the [[Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)]] when two Libyan fighter aircraft were shot down by two US Navy [[F-14 Tomcat]] fighters. Then, [[Radio North Sea International#Destination Libya|two Libyan radio ships]] were sunk in the Gulf of Sidra. Later, on 23 March 1986, a Libyan Navy patrol boat was sunk in the Gulf of Sidra,<ref>Speakes, Larry M. (24 March 1986). [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/32486b.htm Statement by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Speakes on the Gulf of Sidra Incident] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709000828/http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/32486b.htm |date=9 July 2008 }}. [[White House]].</ref> followed by the sinking of another Libyan vessel on 25 March 1986.<ref>Reagan, Ronald (1986). [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_v86/ai_4323912 Gulf of Sidra incident] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120711205837/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_v86/ai_4323912/ |date=11 July 2012 }}. US Department of State Bulletin.</ref> The Libyan leader, [[Muammar Gaddafi]], was accused by the US government of retaliating for these sinkings by ordering [[West Berlin discotheque bombing|the April 1986 bombing of La Belle]], a [[West Berlin]] nightclub frequented by US military personnel, killing three people and injuring 230.<ref>Malinarich, Nathalie (13 November 2001). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1653848.stm Flashback: The Berlin disco bombing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831121716/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1653848.stm |date=31 August 2017 }}. [[BBC News]].</ref>

The US [[National Security Agency]]'s (NSA) alleged interception of an incriminatory message from Libya to its embassy in East Berlin provided US President [[Ronald Reagan]] with the justification for [[Operation El Dorado Canyon]] on 15 April 1986, with [[US Navy]] and [[US Marine Corps]] warplanes launching from three aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Sidra and [[US Air Force]] warplanes launching from two British bases<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert W. |title=White House Studies Compendium |date=2007 |publisher=Nova Publishers |isbn=978-1-60021-542-1 |pages=137−138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_0cTQo8t7oC |access-date=27 August 2023 |language=en |archive-date=27 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827003616/https://books.google.com/books?id=I_0cTQo8t7oC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.stm US launches air strikes on Libya] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720121141/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.stm |date=20 July 2011 }}. [[BBC News]]. 15 April 1986.</ref>—the first US military strikes from Britain since World War II—against Tripoli and [[Benghazi]] in Libya. The Libyan government claimed the air strikes killed [[Hana Gaddafi]], a daughter Gaddafi claimed he had adopted (her reported age has varied between 15 months and seven years).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aim.org/aim-column/nbc%E2%80%99s-mitchell-regurgitates-gaddafi-lies/ |title=NBC's Mitchell Regurgitates Gaddafi Lies |publisher=Aim.org |access-date=4 June 2011 |archive-date=12 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190812005501/https://www.aim.org/aim-column/nbc%E2%80%99s-mitchell-regurgitates-gaddafi-lies/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> To avenge his daughter's supposed death (although Hana or Hanna's actual fate remains disputed), Gaddafi is said to have sponsored the September 1986 hijacking of [[Pan Am Flight 73]] in [[Karachi]], [[Pakistan]].<ref>Swain, Jon (28 March 2004). [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1052614.ece Revealed: Gaddafi's air massacre plot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523234457/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1052614.ece |date=23 May 2011 }}. ''[[The Times]]''.</ref>

In turn, the US encouraged the [[Chadian National Armed Forces]] (FANT) and it also aided them by supplying them with [[GEOINT|satellite intelligence]] during the [[Battle of Maaten al-Sarra]]. The attack resulted in a devastating defeat for Gaddafi's forces, following which he had to accede to a [[ceasefire]] ending the [[Chadian–Libyan War|Chadian-Libyan conflict]] and his dreams of African dominance. Gaddafi blamed the defeat on French and US "aggression against Libya".<ref name=Greenwald>{{Cite news| author=Greenwald, John| title =Disputes Raiders of the Armed Toyotas| newspaper=TIME| date =21 September 1987| url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965563,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20101023000451/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965563,00.html| archive-date =23 October 2010}}</ref> The result was Gaddafi's lingering animosity against the two countries which led to Libyan support for the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and [[UTA Flight 772]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Ranter|first=Harro|title=ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 N54629 Ténéré desert|url=http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19890919-1|access-date=4 June 2011|website=aviation-safety.net|publisher=Aviation Safety Network|archive-date=9 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209181930/http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19890919-1|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Demands for independent inquiry===
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. Demands for such an inquiry emerged later, and became more insistent. On 2 September 2009, former [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]] [[Michael McGowan (politician)|Michael McGowan]] demanded that the UK government call for an urgent, independent inquiry led by the UN to find out the truth about Pan Am flight 103. "We owe it to the families of the victims of Lockerbie and the international community to identify those responsible," McGowan said.<ref>{{Cite news |author=McGowan |first=Michael |author-link=Michael McGowan (politician) |date=2 September 2009 |title=The best tribute to the 270 victims of Lockerbie is to find out the truth |url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/opinion/Michael-McGowan-The-best-tribute.5612963.jp |access-date=1 November 2009 |work=[[Yorkshire Post]]}}</ref> Two [[online petition]]s were started: one calling for a UK [[public inquiry]] into the Lockerbie bombing;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/09/petition-to-set-up-public-inquiry-into.html |title=Petition to set up public inquiry into Lockerbie |date=10 September 2009 |access-date=2 November 2009 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708052031/http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/09/petition-to-set-up-public-inquiry-into.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the other a UN inquiry into the murder of [[UN Commissioner for Namibia]], [[Bernt Carlsson]], in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. In September 2009, a third petition which was addressed to the [[President of the United Nations General Assembly]] demanded that the UN should "institute a full public inquiry" into the Lockerbie disaster.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/1706/Firm_joins_Chomsky%2C_Dalyell_and_others_to_petition_UN_General_Assembly_to_open_Pan_Am_103_inquiry.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091024162009/http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/1706/Firm_joins_Chomsky%2C_Dalyell_and_others_to_petition_UN_General_Assembly_to_open_Pan_Am_103_inquiry.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=24 October 2009 |title=Petition to UN General Assembly to open Pan Am 103 inquiry |date=14 September 2009 |publisher=The Firm magazine |access-date=2 November 2009 }}</ref>

On 3 October 2009, Malta was asked to table a [[United Nations General Assembly resolution|UN resolution]] supporting the petition, which was signed by 20 people including the families of the Lockerbie victims, authors, journalists, professors, politicians and parliamentarians, as well as [[Archbishop Desmond Tutu]]. The signatories considered that a UN inquiry could help remove "many of the deep misgivings which persist in lingering over this tragedy" and could also eliminate Malta from this terrorist act. Malta was brought into the case because the prosecution argued that the two accused Libyans, [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] and [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]], had placed the bomb on an [[Air Malta]] aircraft before it was transferred at [[Frankfurt International Airport|Frankfurt airport]] to a feeder flight destined for London's [[Heathrow International Airport|Heathrow airport]], from which Pan Am Flight 103 departed. The Maltese government responded saying that the demand for a UN inquiry was "an interesting development that would be deeply considered, although there were complex issues surrounding the event."<ref>{{Cite news|author=Muscat|first=Caroline|date=4 October 2009|title=Malta asked to support demands for UN inquiry on Lockerbie|work=[[Times of Malta]]|url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091004/local/malta-asked-to-support-demands-for-un-inquiry-on-lockerbie|access-date=2 November 2009|archive-date=11 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811003544/http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091004/local/malta-asked-to-support-demands-for-un-inquiry-on-lockerbie|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 24 August 2009, Lockerbie campaigner [[Dr Jim Swire]] wrote to Prime Minister, [[Gordon Brown]], calling for a full inquiry, including the question of suppression of the [[Heathrow International Airport|Heathrow]] evidence. This was backed up by a delegation of Lockerbie relatives, led by Pamela Dix, who went to [[10 Downing Street]] on 24 October 2009 and handed over a letter addressed to Gordon Brown calling for a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the need for a public inquiry and the main issues that it should address.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6427497/Lockerbie-families-lobby-Gordon-Brown-for-public-inquiry.html? |title=Lockerbie families lobby Gordon Brown for public inquiry |date=25 October 2009 |work=Daily Telegraph |location=UK |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=6 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091106004635/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6427497/Lockerbie-families-lobby-Gordon-Brown-for-public-inquiry.html |url-status=live }}</ref> An [[op-ed]] article by Pamela Dix, subtitled "The families of those killed in the bombing have not given up hope of an inquiry to help us learn the lessons of this tragedy", was published in ''The Guardian'' on 26 October 2009.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/26/lockerbie-bombing-inquiry-families |title=We still need a Lockerbie inquiry |date=26 October 2009 |work=The Guardian |location=UK |access-date=1 November 2009 |first=Pamela |last=Dix |archive-date=8 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130908034218/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/26/lockerbie-bombing-inquiry-families |url-status=live }}</ref> On 1 November 2009, it was reported that Gordon Brown had ruled out a public inquiry into Lockerbie, saying in response to Dr Swire's letter: "I understand your desire to understand the events surrounding the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 but I do not think it would be appropriate for the UK government to open an inquiry of this sort." UK ministers explained that it was for the Scottish Government to decide if it wanted to hold its own, more limited, inquiry into the terrorist attack. The Scottish Government had already rejected an independent inquiry, saying it lacks the constitutional power to examine the international dimensions of the case.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Allardyce|first1=Jason|last2=Macaskill|first2=Mark|date=1 November 2009|title=Lockerbie inquiry ruled out by Gordon Brown|work=The Times|location=London|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/lockerbie-inquiry-ruled-out-by-gordon-brown-jt78fm069kr}}</ref>

Concluding his extensive reply dated 27 October 2009 to the Prime Minister, Dr Swire said: {{blockquote|You have now received a much more comprehensive letter requesting a full inquiry from our group 'UK Families-Flight 103'. I am one of the signatories. I hope that the contents of this letter underline some of the reasons as to why I cannot possibly accept that any inquiry should be limited to Scotland, and I apologise if my previous personal letter of 24 August misled you over the main focus that the inquiry will need to address. That focus lies in London and at the door of the then inhabitant of Number 10 Downing Street. I look forward to hearing your comments both to our group's letter and to the contents of this one.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/11/dr-swires-reply-to-gordon-brown.html |title=Dr Swire's reply to Gordon Brown |date=November 2009 |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708052131/http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/11/dr-swires-reply-to-gordon-brown.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

===Claims of Gaddafi involvement===

On 23 February 2011, amidst the [[2011 Libyan Civil War|Libyan Civil War]], Mustafa Abdul Jalil, former Libyan Justice Minister (and later member and Chairman of the anti-Gaddafi [[National Transitional Council]]), alleged that he had evidence that Libyan leader, [[Muammar Gaddafi]], had personally ordered [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] to bomb Pan Am Flight 103.<ref name="expressen1"/><ref>{{cite news|author=Barker|first=Anne|date=23 February 2011|title=Gaddafi accused of ordering Lockerbie bombing|work=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]]|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/24/3147217.htm|access-date=23 February 2011|archive-date=27 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110227065209/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/24/3147217.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In a July 2021 interview, Gaddafi's son [[Saif al-Islam Gaddafi|Saif al-Islam]] said that his father "had stopped riding his horse after the humiliation of the American bombing of Tripoli in 1986 and resumed riding it after the Lockerbie bombing."<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Worth|first1=Robert F.|last2=Nga|first2=Jehad|date=30 July 2021|title=Qaddafi's Son Is Alive. And He Wants to Take Libya Back.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/magazine/qaddafi-libya.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/magazine/qaddafi-libya.html |archive-date=28 December 2021 |url-access=limited|access-date=30 July 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Alternative theories===
{{Main|Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories}}
Based on a 1995 investigation by journalists [[Paul Foot (journalist)|Paul Foot]] and John Ashton, alternative explanations of the plot to commit the Lockerbie bombing were listed by ''The Guardian'''s Patrick Barkham in 1999.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/apr/07/lockerbie.patrickbarkham |title=Lockerbie conspiracies: A to Z |date=7 April 1999 |work=The Guardian |location=UK |access-date=10 November 2008 |first=Patrick |last=Barkham |archive-date=8 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108230518/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/apr/07/lockerbie.patrickbarkham |url-status=live }}</ref> Following the Lockerbie verdict in 2001 and the appeal in 2002, attempts have been made to re-open the case amid allegations that Libya was framed. One theory suggests the bomb on the plane was detonated by radio. Another theory suggests that the [[CIA]] prevented the suitcase containing the bomb from being searched. Iran's involvement is also alleged, either in association with a Palestine militant group, or in loading the bomb while the plane was at Heathrow. This theory argues that the bombing was in direct response to the accidental shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655, which greatly angered the Arab world, who regarded the U.S. response as devoid of regret or admissions of responsibility.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last1=Genzmer |first1=Herbert |title=Great Disasters |last2=Kershner |first2=Sybille |last3=Schutz |first3=Christian |date=1989 |isbn=9781445410968 |location=Queens Street house |publisher=Paragon |pages=182}}</ref> In retaliation, it is alleged that Iran ordered a Palestinian terrorist organization to blow up the plane. While there were media reports that Abu Nidal claimed responsibility for the attack, these were quickly disproven by officials.<ref name=":03" /> In an internal document, the US [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] claimed that [[Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur]] (''Ayatollah Mohtashemi''), a member of the Iranian government, paid US$10&nbsp;million for the bombing:

{{Blockquote|Ayatollah Mohtashemi ... was the one who paid [$10 million] to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the US shoot-down of the [[Iran Air Flight 655|Iranian Airbus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dia.mil/Portals/27/Documents/FOIA/5%20USC%20%C2%A7%20552(A)(2)(D)%20Records/Other%20Available%20Records/panam103.pdf|title=PAN AM Flight 103|publisher=[[Defense Intelligence Agency]], DOI 910200, page 49/50 (Pages 7 and 8 in PDF document, see also p. 111ff)|access-date=12 January 2010|archive-date=15 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415103320/http://www.dia.mil/Portals/27/Documents/FOIA/5%20USC%20%C2%A7%20552(A)(2)(D)%20Records/Other%20Available%20Records/panam103.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Other theories implicate Libya and [[apartheid South Africa]]. French investigative journalist [[Pierre Péan]] accused [[Thomas Thurman]], a [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] explosives expert, of fabricating false evidence against Libya in both the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 sabotages.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/03/PEAN/14934 ''Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524080153/http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/03/PEAN/14934 |date=24 May 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Péan |first=Pierre |year=2001 |title=African Manipulations: Tainted Evidence of Libyan Terrorism |url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/03/05libya |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121023624/http://mondediplo.com/2001/03/05libya |archive-date=21 January 2009 |accessdate=24 January 2009}}</ref> Relations between Iranian and Palestinian groups were bad at the time; in addition, [[Hezbollah]] and the Iranian government loudly opposed attacks on unarmed civilians; however, the connections between Iran, Palestine, and the Lockerbie bombing "went cold", and no charges or official accusations were filed.<ref name=":03" />

===PCAST statement===
On 29 September 1989, President Bush appointed [[Ann McLaughlin Korologos]], former Secretary of Labor, to chair the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) to review and report on aviation security policy in the light of the sabotage of flight PA103. [[Oliver Revell]], the [[FBI]]'s Executive Assistant Director, was assigned to advise and assist PCAST in their task.<ref>[Oliver_ FBI's Oliver "Buck" Revell served as Advisor to PCAST]. {{Cite web |url=http://www.internationalspeakers.com/speakers/ISBB-553LKW/Oliver_ |title=Oliver "Buck" Revell speaks for International Speakers Bureau |access-date=15 September 2008 |archive-date=13 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813121658/http://www.internationalspeakers.com/speakers/ISBB-553LKW/Oliver_ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Before they submitted their report, the PCAST members met a group of British PA103 relatives at the US embassy in London on 12 February 1990. One of the British relatives, Martin Cadman, alleges that a member of President Bush's staff told him: "Your government and ours know exactly what happened but they are never going to tell."<ref>The Guardian, 12 November 1994, page 6, "Cover-up claim as Lockerbie film screening is cancelled". [http://archive.guardian.co.uk/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=R1VBLzE5OTQvMTEvMTIjQXIwMDYwNA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616045439/http://archive.guardian.co.uk/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=R1VBLzE5OTQvMTEvMTIjQXIwMDYwNA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom|date=16 June 2012}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20120616045439/http://archive.guardian.co.uk/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=R1VBLzE5OTQvMTEvMTIjQXIwMDYwNA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom archived copy]</ref> The statement first came to public attention in the 1994 documentary film ''[[The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie]]'' and was published in both ''The Guardian'' of 12 November 1994, and a special report from ''[[Private Eye]]'' magazine entitled ''Lockerbie, the flight from justice'' May/June 2001.

==Compensation==

===From Libya===
On 29 May 2002, Libya offered up to US$2.7&nbsp;billion to settle claims by the families of the 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing, representing US$10&nbsp;million per family. The Libyan offer was that 40% of the money would be released when United Nations sanctions, suspended in 1999, were canceled; another 40% when US trade sanctions were lifted; and the final 20% when the US State Department removed Libya from its [[State Sponsors of Terrorism|list of states sponsoring terrorism]].<ref name="CNN20020529">{{Cite news |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/05/28/libya.lockerbie.settlement/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707022256/http://articles.cnn.com/2002-05-28/us/libya.lockerbie.settlement_1_libyan-offer-commercial-sanctions-families-of-terror-victims |url-status=live |archive-date=7 July 2012 |title=Libya offers $2.7&nbsp;billion Pan Am 103 settlement |work=CNN |date=29 May 2002 |first1=Andrea |last1=Koppel |first2=Elise |last2=Labott |author-link=Andrea Koppel |access-date=16 September 2009 }}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last1=Genzmer |first1=Herbert |title=Great Disasters |last2=Kershner |first2=Sybille |last3=Schutz |first3=Christian |date=1989 |isbn=9781445410968 |location=Queens Street house |publisher=Paragon |pages=183}}</ref>

Jim Kreindler of the New York law firm [[Kreindler & Kreindler]], which orchestrated the settlement, said: "These are uncharted waters. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims." The US State Department maintained that it was not directly involved. "Some families want cash, others say it is blood money", said a State Department official.<ref name="CNN20020529"/>

Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya. Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorism—which Libya said it had already made—and "accepting responsibility for the actions of its officials".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/sc7868.doc.htm |title=Security Council lifts sanctions imposed on Libya after terrorist bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 |access-date=29 June 2017 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224103702/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/sc7868.doc.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="CNN20020529"/>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.libya1.com/news/n2003/august/n16aug3a.htm |title=Libyan government website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050410113224/http://www.libya1.com/news/n2003/august/n16aug3a.htm |archive-date=10 April 2005 }}</ref> The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US$8&nbsp;million (from which legal fees of about US$2.5&nbsp;million were deducted) and, as a result, the UN canceled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier, and US trade sanctions were lifted. A further US$2&nbsp;million would have gone to each family had the US [[State Department]] removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism, but as this did not happen by the deadline set by Libya, the Libyan Central Bank withdrew the remaining US$540&nbsp;million in April 2005 from the [[escrow]] account in Switzerland through which the earlier US$2.16&nbsp;billion compensation for the victims' families had been paid.<ref name="Lockerbielawyer">{{Cite news |url=http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=1338372003 |work=The Scotsman |title=Lockerbie lawyer says £200m fee is 'good value' |date=6 December 2003 |first=Dan |last=McDougall |location=Edinburgh |access-date=13 December 2005 |archive-date=29 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929104639/http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=1338372003 |url-status=live }}</ref> The United States announced resumption of full diplomatic relations with Libya after deciding to remove it from its [[State Sponsors of Terrorism|list of countries that support terrorism]] on 15 May 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4773617.stm |title=US to renew full ties with Libya |work=BBC News |date=15 May 2006 |access-date=3 January 2010 |archive-date=3 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061203185000/http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4773617.stm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said, "I agree with that." He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer [[Yvonne Fletcher]] outside the Libyan Embassy in London. Gaddafi later retracted Ghanem's comments, under pressure from Washington and London.<ref>{{cite web |date=24 February 2004 |title=BBC Radio 4, 24 February 2004 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ztuesday_20040224.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308174923/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ztuesday_20040224.shtml |archive-date=8 March 2007}}</ref>

A civil action against Libya continued until 18 February 2005 on behalf of Pan Am and its insurers, which went bankrupt partly as a result of the attack. The airline was seeking $4.5&nbsp;billion for the loss of the aircraft and the effect on the airline's business.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apsu.edu/oconnort/3410/3410lect06.htm |title=Case Studies of Domestic Terrorism |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127061236/http://www.apsu.edu/oconnort/3410/3410lect06.htm |archive-date=27 January 2007 }}</ref>

In the wake of the SCCRC's June 2007 decision, there have been suggestions that, if Megrahi's second appeal had been successful and his conviction had been overturned, Libya could have sought to recover the $2.16&nbsp;billion compensation paid to the relatives.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.scotsman.com/lockerbie/Libyans-want-their-14bn-payout.3299413.jp |title=Libyans want their £1.4bn payout back |date=28 June 2007 |first=Michael |last=Howe |work=The Scotsman |location=UK |access-date=16 September 2009 |archive-date=26 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226001011/http://news.scotsman.com/lockerbie/Libyans-want-their-14bn-payout.3299413.jp |url-status=live }}</ref> Interviewed by French newspaper ''[[Le Figaro]]'' on 7 December 2007, [[Saif al-Islam Gaddafi]] said that the seven Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the [[UTA Flight 772]] bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims (US$33&nbsp;billion in total), Saif Gaddafi replied: "I don't know".<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2007/12/07/01003-20071207ARTFIG00487-seif-el-islam-kadhafi-la-libye-sera-un-pays-heureux.php Saif al-Gaddafi says "Libyans are innocent" of the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 bombings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209061430/http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2007/12/07/01003-20071207ARTFIG00487-seif-el-islam-kadhafi-la-libye-sera-un-pays-heureux.php |date=9 December 2007 }} ''[[Le Figaro]]'' 7 December 2007.</ref>

Following discussions in London in May 2008, US and Libyan officials agreed to start negotiations to resolve all outstanding bilateral compensation claims, including those relating to [[UTA Flight 772]], the [[1986 Berlin discotheque bombing]] and Pan Am Flight 103.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7428901.stm |title=Libya to resolve claims with US |work=BBC News |date=31 May 2008 |access-date=3 January 2010 |archive-date=4 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904210733/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7428901.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> On 14 August 2008, a US-Libya compensation deal was signed in Tripoli by US Assistant Secretary of State [[David Welch (diplomat)|David Welch]] and Libya's Foreign Ministry head of America affairs, Ahmed al-Fatroui. 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.<ref>{{Cite news |title=US-Libya compensation deal sealed |date=14 August 2008 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7561271.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=14 August 2008 |archive-date=17 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917184112/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7561271.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In October 2008 Libya paid $1.5&nbsp;billion into a fund which will be used to compensate relatives of these groups:

# Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20% of the sum agreed in 2003;
# American victims of the [[1986 West Berlin discotheque bombing|1986 Berlin discotheque bombing]];
# American victims of the 1989 [[UTA Flight 772]] bombing; and,
# Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.

As a result, [[George W. Bush|President Bush]] signed {{ExecutiveOrder|13477}} restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7703110.stm |title=Libya compensates terror victims |access-date=1 November 2008 |work=BBC News |date=31 October 2008 |archive-date=3 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081103212038/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7703110.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> [[US State Department]] spokesman, [[Sean McCormack]], called the move a "laudable milestone ... clearing the way for a continued and expanding US-Libyan partnership."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2008/10/20081031192535751952.html |title=Libya pays US victims of attacks |access-date=3 November 2008 |work=Al Jazeera |archive-date=13 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813092520/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2008/10/20081031192535751952.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In an interview shown in [[BBC Two]]'s ''The Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/08_august/29/lockerbie.shtml |title=Gaddafi's son attacks "greedy" Lockerbie relatives in BBC Two documentary |date=29 August 2008 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=16 September 2009 |archive-date=16 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116061626/http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/08_august/29/lockerbie.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> on 31 August 2008, Saif Gaddafi said that Libya had admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing simply to get trade sanctions removed. He went on to describe the families of the Lockerbie victims as very greedy: "They were asking for more money and more money and more money".<ref>{{Cite news|date=28 August 2008|title=Lockerbie evidence not disclosed|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7573244.stm|access-date=29 August 2008|archive-date=29 August 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829023914/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7573244.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Several of the victims families refused to accept compensation due to their belief that Libya was not responsible.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Conspiracy Files:Lockerbie |date=1 September 2008 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/conspiracy_files/7570580.stm |access-date=19 October 2009 |archive-date=25 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025122526/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/conspiracy_files/7570580.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

====February 2011====
In an interview with Swedish newspaper ''[[Expressen]]'' on 23 February 2011, [[Mustafa Abdul Jalil]], former Justice Secretary of Libya, claimed to have evidence that Gaddafi personally ordered Al-Megrahi to carry out the bombing.<ref name="expressen1">{{Cite news|title=Khadaffi gav order om Lockerbie-attentatet|date=23 February 2011|work=Expressen|url=http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2341356/khadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet|access-date=23 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226032909/http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2341356/khadaffi-gav-order-om-lockerbie-attentatet|archive-date=26 February 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Quotes: "[Jalil] told Expressen Khadafy [sic] gave the order to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground on 21 December 1988.
'To hide it, he (Khadafy) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland,' Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying."<ref name="nypost1">{{Cite news | url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/khadafy_ordered_lockerbie_bombing_vpkR8Cz6u1q59aR8k2R98I | work=New York Post | title=Khadafy ordered Lockerbie bombing, says Libyan minister | date=23 February 2011 | access-date=23 February 2011 | archive-date=24 February 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224122923/http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/khadafy_ordered_lockerbie_bombing_vpkR8Cz6u1q59aR8k2R98I | url-status=live }}</ref>

Al Jalil's commentary to the ''Expressen'' came during widespread political unrest and protests in Libya calling for the removal of Ghaddafi from power. The protests were part of a massive wave of unprecedented uprisings across the Arab world in: Tunisia, [[Morocco]], [[Bahrain]] and [[Egypt]], where Egyptian protesters effectively forced the removal of long-term ruler, [[Hosni Mubarak]], from office. Jalil's comments came on a day when Ghaddafi's defiance and refusal to leave his command prompted his brutal attacks on Libyan protesters.

Abdel-Jalil stepped down as minister of justice in protest over the violence against anti-government demonstrations.<ref name="nypost1"/>

====Contingency fees for lawyers====
On 5 December 2003, Jim Kreindler revealed that his [[Park Avenue]] law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US$1&nbsp;million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents. The firm's fees could exceed US$300&nbsp;million eventually. Kreindler argued that the fees were justified, since "Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for, and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money."<ref name="Lockerbielawyer"/>

Another top legal firm in the US, Speiser Krause, which represented 60 relatives, of whom half were UK families, concluded contingency deals securing them fees of between 28 and 35% of individual settlements. Frank Granito of Speiser Krause noted that "the rewards in the US are more substantial than anywhere else in the world but nobody has questioned the fee whilst the work has been going on, it is only now as we approach a resolution when the criticism comes your way."<ref>{{Cite news|last=McDougall |first=Dan |date=9 November 2002 |url=http://news.scotsman.com/lockerbie/US-Lockerbie-lawyers-to-net.2376651.jp |title=US Lockerbie lawyers to net £500m |work=The Scotsman |location=UK |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20090830003331/http://news.scotsman.com/lockerbie/US-Lockerbie-lawyers-to-net.2376651.jp |archive-date=30 August 2009 }}</ref>

In March 2009, it was announced that US lobbying firm, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, received fees of $2&nbsp;million for the work it did from 2006 through 2008 helping the PA103 relatives obtain payment by Libya of the final $2&nbsp;million compensation (out of a total of $10&nbsp;million) that was due to each family.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.blnz.com/news/2009/03/03/INFLUENCE_GAME_Libya_case_gets_4914.html |title=The Influence Game: Lobbyists who aided families of Pan Am bombing victims earn $2&nbsp;million fee |access-date=7 March 2014 |first=Alan |last=Fram |agency=Associated Press |archive-date=30 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330215029/http://www.blnz.com/news/2009/03/03/INFLUENCE_GAME_Libya_case_gets_4914.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===From Pan Am===
In 1992, a US federal court found Pan Am guilty of willful misconduct due to relaxed security screening caused by failure to implement [[Checked baggage#Passenger-baggage reconciliation|baggage reconciliation]], a new security program mandated by the [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]] prior to the incident, which requires unaccompanied luggage to be searched by hand and to ensure passengers board flights onto which they have checked baggage; Pan Am relied more on the less-effective method of X-ray screening. Two of Pan Am's subsidiaries, Alert Management Inc., which handled Pan Am's security at foreign airports, and Pan American World Services, were also found guilty.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Treadwell |first=Daniel |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-11-mn-1480-story.html |title=Pan Am Guilty of 'Willful Misconduct' |work=Los Angeles Times |date=11 July 1992 |access-date=9 August 2009 |archive-date=29 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829130430/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-07-11/news/mn-1480_1_willful-misconduct |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Memorials and tributes==
[[File:Pan Am Flight 103 Memorial - looking S - Arlington National Cemetery - 2011.JPG|thumb|upright|Lockerbie Cairn in [[Arlington National Cemetery]], U.S.]]
[[File:Cairn Inscription ANC.jpg|thumb|Inscription on memorial at Arlington National Cemetery]]
There are several private and public memorials to the PA103 victims. ''Dark Elegy'' is the work of sculptor Suse Lowenstein of Long Island, whose son Alexander, then 21, was a passenger on the flight. The work consists of 43 nude statues of the wives and mothers who lost a husband or a child. Inside each sculpture there is a personal memento of the victim.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dark Elergy|url=http://web.syr.edu/%7Evpaf103/mem_elergy.htm |work=Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014064132/http://web.syr.edu/~vpaf103/mem_elergy.htm |archive-date=14 October 2007 |access-date=21 December 2008}}</ref>

===United States===
[[File:Syracuse University Flight 103 Memorial.jpg|thumb|left|[[Syracuse University]]'s memorial in [[Syracuse, New York]].]]

On 3 November 1995, then-U.S. President [[Bill Clinton]] dedicated a Memorial Cairn to the victims at [[Arlington National Cemetery]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Nguyen|first=Lan|title=Remembering Flight 103; 2,000 Attend Unveiling of Monument in Arlington|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=4 November 1995|page=B3}}</ref> and there are similar memorials at [[Syracuse University]]; [[Dryfesdale]] Cemetery, near Lockerbie; and in Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie.<ref>[http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/08/20/09/night-fire-and-victims-rained-lockerbie The night fire and victims rained on Lockerbie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828082731/http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/08/20/09/night-fire-and-victims-rained-lockerbie |date=28 August 2009 }}. [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]. 20 August 2009.</ref>

[[Syracuse University]] holds a memorial week every year called "Remembrance Week" to commemorate its 35 lost students. 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.<ref>"University remembers Flight 103. 25 of 35 students were from Syracuse." ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]''. 18 December 1998.</ref> The university also awards university tuition fees to two students from Lockerbie Academy each year, in the form of its Lockerbie scholarship. In addition, the university annually awards 35 scholarships to seniors to honor each of the 35 students killed.<ref>"35 scholarships honor Lockerbie crash victims". ''[[Orlando Sentinel]]''. 5 December 1990.</ref><ref>[http://remembrance.syr.edu/ Remembrance Scholarships] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716174702/http://remembrance.syr.edu/ |date=16 July 2015 }} at [[Syracuse University]].</ref> The "Remembrance Scholarships" are among the highest honors a Syracuse undergraduate can receive. [[SUNY Oswego]] also gives out scholarships in memorial of Colleen Brunner to a student who is studying abroad.<ref>[http://www.aie.org/Scholarships/detail.cfm?id=10008 Colleen Brunner Memorial Scholarship] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828074928/http://www.aie.org/Scholarships/detail.cfm?id=10008 |date=28 August 2009 }}. Adventures in Education.</ref> A memorial plaque and garden in memory of its two students lost in the bombing is set in the [[University of Rochester]]'s Eastman Quadrangle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V76N2/0502_lockerbie.html|title=Lessons of Lockerbie|website=rochester.edu|publisher=University of Rochester|last=Hauser|first=Scott|access-date=21 December 2020|archive-date=21 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221195532/https://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V76N2/0502_lockerbie.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Eric Coker and Katharine Hollister Memorial Plaque, Eastman Quadrangle, University of Rochester.jpg|thumb|Memorial Plaque in Honor of Eric Coker and Katharine Hollister, Eastman Quadrangle, University of Rochester]] At [[Cornell University]] funds from the Libyan payment were used to establish a memorial professorship in honor of student Kenneth J. Bissett.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cornell professorship funded by $3.8 million Libyan payment for student killed in Lockerbie bombing|url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/12/professorship-honors-student-killed-lockerbie-bombing|website=news.cornell.edu|access-date=22 December 2020|archive-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815142029/https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/12/professorship-honors-student-killed-lockerbie-bombing|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== The Women of Lockerbie ====
''The Women of Lockerbie'' (2003) is a play written by [[Deborah Brevoort]] which depicts a woman from New Jersey roaming the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland. This mother tragically lost her son in the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103. While in Lockerbie, 7 years after the flight, she meets the women who witnessed and were affected by the crash itself while she attempts to find closure.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3626|title=Dramatists Play Service, Inc.|website=www.dramatists.com|access-date=17 March 2018|archive-date=17 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317232915/https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3626|url-status=live}}</ref> This play has received the Silver Medal from the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the [[John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts|Kennedy Center]] Fund for New American Plays award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.deborahbrevoort.com/plays/the-women-of-lockerbie/|title=The Women of Lockerbie – Deborah Brevoort|website=www.deborahbrevoort.com|language=en-US|access-date=17 March 2018|archive-date=18 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318054304/http://www.deborahbrevoort.com/plays/the-women-of-lockerbie/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Lockerbie===
[[File:Lockerbie disaster memorial.jpg|thumb|Memorial at Dryfesdale Cemetery]]
[[File:20210815 Lockerbie Memorial-8774.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial in Sherwood Crescent]]

The main UK memorial is at [[Dryfesdale]] Cemetery about {{convert|1|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off|spell=in}} west of Lockerbie. There is a semicircular stone wall in the garden of remembrance with the names and nationalities of all the victims along with individual funeral stones and memorials. Inside the chapel at Dryfesdale there is a book of remembrance. There are memorials in [[Lockerbie]] and [[Moffat]] Roman Catholic churches, where plaques list the names of all 270 victims. In [[Lockerbie Town Hall]] Council Chambers, there is a stained-glass window depicting flags of the 21 countries whose citizens lost their lives in the disaster. There is also a book of remembrance at Lockerbie public library and another at Tundergarth Church.<ref>Cohen, Susan; Cohen, Daniel (2000). ''Pan AM 103: the bombing, the betrayals, and a bereaved family's search for justice.'' New American Library. p. 152.</ref><ref>{{cite thesis|last=Britton|first=Daryl|title=Elegies of Darkness: Commemorations of the Bombing of Pan Am 103|date=June 2008|degree=PhD|publisher=[[Syracuse University]]|location=Syracuse, NY|id=Document No. 3333563{{ProQuest|304385639}}|isbn=9780549861195}}</ref> In Sherwood Crescent there is a garden of remembrance to the seven Lockerbie residents killed when the aircraft's main wreckage fell there, destroying their homes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.1153232,-3.3587756,3a,45y,43.91h,79.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMhI9NmapTh1Mzbf7ckHWFA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656|title=Google Streetview Sherwood Crescent Memorial|access-date=31 May 2016|archive-date=6 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106185856/https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.1153232,-3.3587756,3a,45y,43.91h,79.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMhI9NmapTh1Mzbf7ckHWFA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Carfin Grotto chapel ===
A chapel at Carfin Grotto was dedicated in June 1989 to the victims of the bombing. Daily Mass is now celebrated in this glass chapel, now named '''Our Lady, Maid of the Seas''' after the ill-fated aircraft.

==Wreckage of the aircraft==
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch reassembled a large part of the fuselage to aid with the investigation; this has been retained as evidence and stored in a hangar at [[Farnborough Airport]] since the bombing.

In 2008, the remaining wreckage of the aircraft was being stored at a scrapyard near [[Tattershall]], Lincolnshire, pending the conclusion of the American victims' civil case and further legal proceedings.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lockerbie disaster Pan am flight 103 remains lie forgotten in a Lincolnshire scrapyard |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/lockerbie-disaster-pan-am-flight-103-remains-lie-forgotten-lincolnshire-scrapyard-196102 |newspaper=[[The Scotsman]] |date=4 December 2018 |accessdate=18 July 2021 |archive-date=18 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718132553/https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/lockerbie-disaster-pan-am-flight-103-remains-lie-forgotten-lincolnshire-scrapyard-196102 |url-status=live }}</ref> The remains include the nose section of the Boeing 747, which was cut into several pieces to assist in removal from Tundergarth Hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/latest.html |title=Authentic Pan Am 103 cockpit wreck photo |access-date=8 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030417063520/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/latest.html |archive-date=17 April 2003 }}</ref>

It was announced in April 2013 that part of the wreckage was transferred to a secure location in [[Dumfries]], Scotland, and that it remains evidence in the ongoing criminal investigation.<ref name="BBC-April-2013">{{cite news | title = Lockerbie wreckage parts returned to Scotland | date = 25 April 2013 | publisher = BBC | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22290443 | work = BBC News | access-date = 25 April 2013 | archive-date = 25 April 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130425204232/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22290443 | url-status = live }}</ref>

A section of the aircraft's wreckage, including parts of the fuselage, was announced as being transported to the US in December 2024, as evidence in a new trial against [[Abu Agila Masud]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ke7m0em72o |title=Lockerbie wreckage moved to US for bombing trial |publisher=bbc.com |date=9 December 2024 |accessdate=12 December 2024}}</ref> The trial was set to begin in May 2025,<ref name="StvTrialSet">{{Cite web |last=Meighan |first=Craig |date=21 December 2023 |title=US sets date for trial against Lockerbie bombing suspect |url=https://news.stv.tv/scotland/us-sets-date-for-trial-against-lockerbie-bombing-suspect-abu-agila-masud |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222154111/https://news.stv.tv/scotland/us-sets-date-for-trial-against-lockerbie-bombing-suspect-abu-agila-masud |archive-date=22 December 2023 |access-date=22 January 2024 |website=STV News}}</ref> but was delayed to April 2026 due to the case's complex nature.<ref name="BBCTrialDelayed" />

==In popular culture==
The [[Emmerdale plane crash|''Emmerdale'' plane crash]], a storyline in ''[[Emmerdale]]'' in 1993, received complaints due to its similarity to the event.<ref name=seale>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2018/jan/28/baby-swaps-and-incestuous-siblings-the-most-hated-soap-storylines-ever|title=Baby swaps and incestuous siblings: the most hated soap storylines ever|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=28 January 2018|access-date=17 January 2025|first=Jack|last=Seale}}</ref>

The events of Flight 103 were featured in "Lockerbie Disaster", a [[List of Mayday episodes#Season 7 (2009)|Season 7 (2009)]] episode of the Canadian television series ''[[Mayday (Canadian TV series)|Mayday]]'' (called ''Air Emergency'' and ''Air Disasters'' in the US and ''Air Crash Investigation'' in the UK and elsewhere around the world).<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Lockerbie Disaster|series=[[Mayday (Canadian TV series)|Mayday]]|network=[[Discovery Channel Canada]] / [[National Geographic Society|National Geographic]]|season=7|number=1|year=2009}}</ref> It is also featured in a documentary film ''[[The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie]]''.

A four-part documentary television series 'Lockerbie' was produced by Mindhouse Productions in association with [[Sky Studios]]1 and directed by John Dower.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chesterton |first=George |date=24 November 2023 |title=Lockerbie on Sky review: sensitively picks its way through unending grief and Realpolitik at its most cynical |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/lockerbie-on-sky-review-b1122413.html |access-date=16 June 2024 |website=The Standard}}</ref>

The book ''[[The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky]]'' by Ken Dornstein was published about his brother who died in the crash.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grimes |first1=William |title=A Brother's Journey for the Truth About Lockerbie |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/books/a-brothers-journey-for-the-truth-about-lockerbie.html |access-date=18 January 2025 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=19 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617074702/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/books/a-brothers-journey-for-the-truth-about-lockerbie.html |archive-date=17 June 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The 2025 British drama miniseries ''[[Lockerbie: A Search for Truth]]'' based on the 2021 book ''The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice'' by [[Jim Swire]] and Peter Biddulph follows the aftermath of the events onboard flight 103.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Curtis |first=Nick |date=2024-12-27 |title=Lockerbie: A Search for Truth on Sky – meticulous and honourable |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/lockerbie-a-search-for-truth-sky-review-colin-firth-b1200895.html |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=The Standard}}</ref> 

The bombing is also the subject of the 2025 BBC series ''[[The Bombing of Pan Am 103]]''.

==See also==
* [[Air India Flight 182]]{{snd}}Another 747-200 which was bombed by [[Babbar Khalsa]] killing all 329 occupants on board.
* [[Philippine Airlines Flight 434]]{{snd}}Another 747-200 Combi which was bombed by [[Ramzi Yousef]] as a test for the [[Bojinka plot]]. One passenger died from this "test" and several others were injured.
* [[Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901]]
* [[Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103]]{{snd}} Allegedly shot down by order of Muammar Gaddafi in order to show the negative effects of the sanctions which were imposed on Libya after the bombing of Flight 103
* [[Itavia Flight 870]] {{snd}} A [[McDonnell Douglas DC-9|McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15]] which was either bombed up or was accidentally shot down by the [[French Air and Space Force|French Air Force]] while trying to down a MiG jet operated by the [[Libyan Air Force]]. All 81 occupants died.
* [[Metrojet Flight 9268]] {{snd}}An [[Airbus A321]] which was bombed by the [[Islamic State – Sinai Province]] killing all 224 occupants on board.
* [[Libya and state-sponsored terrorism]]
* [[List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft]]
* [[Timeline of airliner bombing attacks]]
* [[Cubana de Aviación Flight 455]]
* [[United Air Lines Trip 23]]{{snd}} The first confirmed case of an aircraft bombing. All 7 occupants died.
* [[Flight 103 (disambiguation)]] – A list of other flights with the same or similar number

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|url=https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides_pa103/pdf/103PUB0001.pdf|title=U.S. Policy in the Aftermath of the Bombing of Pan Am 103|publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]]|year=1994|place=Washington, DC|access-date=16 July 2020|archive-date=16 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716232443/https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides_pa103/pdf/103PUB0001.pdf|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|author-link=Steven Emerson|last1=Emerson|first1=Steven|last2=Duffy|first2=Brian|year=1990|title=The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation|publisher=Putnam|isbn=0-399-13521-9|url=https://archive.org/details/fallofpanam103in00emer}}
* {{cite book|last1=Cox|first1=Matthew|last2=Foster|first2=Tom|year=1992|title=Their Darkest Day: The Tragedy of Pan Am 103|publisher=Grove Weidenfeld|isbn=0-8021-1382-6|url=https://archive.org/details/theirdarkestdayt00coxm}}
* {{cite book|last=Johnston|first=David|year=1989|title=Lockerbie: The True Story}} {{ISBN?}}
* {{cite book|last1=Goddard|first1=Donald|author-link2=Lester Coleman|last2=Coleman|first2=Lester|year=1993|title=Trail of the Octopus|isbn=0-451-18184-0|title-link=Trail of the Octopus (book)|publisher=Signet }}
* {{cite book|last1=Ashton|first1=John|last2=Ferguson|first2=Ian|year=2001|title=Cover-up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie|publisher=Mainstream |isbn=1-84018-389-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Ashton|first=John|year=2012|title=Megrahi: You Are My Jury|publisher=Birlinn |isbn=978-1780270159}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bannon |first1=Kevin |title=How Abdelbaset al-Megrahi became convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing. |date=2020 |publisher=Grosvenor House Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1786236661}}
* {{cite book|last=Kerr|first=Morag|year=2013|title=Adequately Explained by Stupidity?|publisher=Troubador Publishing |isbn=978-1783062508}}
* {{cite journal|last=Brown|first=David A.|title=Investigators Expand Search for Debris From Bombed 747|journal=[[Aviation Week and Space Technology]]|volume=130|number=25|pages=26–27|date=9 January 1989}}
* {{cite journal|last=Shifrin|first=Carole A.|title=British Issue Report on Flight 103, Urge Study on Reducing Effects of Explosions|journal=Aviation Week and Space Technology|volume=133|number=12|pages=128–129|date=7 September 1990}}
* {{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html?pagewanted=print|title=Scottish Panel Challenges Lockerbie Conviction|newspaper=New York Times|first=Alan|last=Cowell|date=29 June 2007|access-date=16 September 2009|archive-date=18 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418052923/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html?pagewanted=print|url-status=live}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050213061650/http://hjem.get2net.dk/safsaf/indictscot.html The Scottish indictment against Megrahi and Fhimah], 13 November 1991. Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/TheIndictment.html The U.S. indictment against Megrahi and Fhimah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108215755/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/TheIndictment.html |date=8 November 2005 }}, 13 November 1991. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/TheJudges.html The Scottish judges] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716212348/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/TheJudges.html |date=16 July 2011 }}. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/LockerbieVerdict.html The verdict against Megrahi and Fhimah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918141943/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/LockerbieVerdict.html |date=18 September 2009 }}, issued 31 January 2001. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/dft_avsafety_pdf_503158.pdf "No:2/9{{snd}}Boeing 747-121, N739PA, at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050330064344/http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/dft_avsafety_pdf_503158.pdf |date=30 March 2005 }}, [[Air Accident Investigation Branch]] (AAIB) report. Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325184333/http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/dft_avsafety_pdf_503156.pdf The position of the bomb], AAIB report, Appendix F (pdf). Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050330063250/http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/dft_avsafety_pdf_503157.pdf "Mach stem shock wave effects"], AAIB report, Appendix G (pdf). Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19881221-0 Aviation Safety Network summary report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802040951/http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19881221-0 |date=2 August 2018 }}. Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [http://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=19881221-0&vnr=1&kind=G Graphic of how the aircraft was destroyed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050524112155/http://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=19881221-0&vnr=1&kind=G |date=24 May 2005 }}, Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160116061627/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/TheCosts.htm The cost of the trial]. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/Lockerbieappealjudgement.html The judgment in Megrahi's appeal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806075641/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/HCJ/Lockerbie/Lockerbieappealjudgement.html |date=6 August 2007 }}, 14 March 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN731.html United Nations Security Council Resolution 731 (1992)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051120101852/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN731.html |date=20 November 2005 }}, 21 January 1992. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN748.html United Nations Security Council Resolution 748 (1992)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109153555/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN748.html |date=9 November 2005 }}, 21 January 1992. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN883.html United Nations Security Council Resolution 883 (1993)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050413065308/http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN883.html |date=13 April 2005 }}, 11 November 1993. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/scotland/2000/lockerbie_trial/default.stm In-depth pages on the trial] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804183740/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/scotland/2000/lockerbie_trial/default.stm |date=4 August 2020 }}, BBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/lockerbie/235632.stm "Lessons from Lockerbie, ten years later"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314062618/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/lockerbie/235632.stm |date=14 March 2007 }}, BBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20020913003025/http%3A//www%2Ethelockerbietrial%2Ecom/ The Lockerbie Trial]. Retrieved 29 December 2008
* {{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/lockerbie/lock920427.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213224301/http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/lockerbie/lock920427.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 February 2006|title=Pan Am 103: Why Did They Die?|first=Roy|last=Rowan|magazine=Time|date=27 April 1992|access-date=25 February 2005}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060213224219/http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/lockerbie/index.html "Time Trail: Lockerbie"], a collection of stories about the bombing from ''Time Magazine''. Retrieved 25 February 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1817752.stm "Lockerbie appeal hears key witness"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040718113403/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1817752.stm |date=18 July 2004 }}, BBC News, 13 February 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1868394.stm "Lockerbie bomber loses appeal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040718112536/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1868394.stm |date=18 July 2004 }}, BBC News, 14 March 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050413063441/http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/34153.html "Lockerbie bomber to fight jail move"], by Lucy Adams, ''The Herald'', 25 February 2005. Retrieved 26 February 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050209184055/http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/megrahi/ Website set up by supporters of Megrahi], not recently updated. Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050310045939/http://panamair.org/OLDSITE/Accidents/terrorism.htm ''Abu Nidal behind Lockerbie, says aide''], CNN, 23 August 2002. Retrieved 27 February 2005
* [https://www.theguardian.com/Lockerbie/Story/0,2763,216917,00.html "Court told how jet's radar blip broke up at 7.02&nbsp;pm"] by Ian Black and Gerard Seenan, 4 May 2000, ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 28 February 2005
* {{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/lockerbie/236466.stm|title=Lockerbie, 10 years on: Reporter's reflections|first=Andrew|last=Cassell|work=BBC News|date=21 December 1998|access-date=3 January 2010|archive-date=29 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229211904/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/lockerbie/236466.stm|url-status=live}}
* {{cite news|url=http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/may/world/026336CA42.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060104003926/http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/may/world/026336CA42.html|archive-date=4 January 2006|title=Libya offers $2.7&nbsp;billion Lockerbie settlement|first=Patrick|last=Rizzo|newspaper=The Namibian|date=29 May 2002}}
* {{cite news |url=http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=380332005 |title=The Scotsman |first=James |last=Kirkup |date=11 April 2005 |location=Edinburgh |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090706032424/http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=380332005 |archive-date=6 July 2009 }}
* {{cite journal|title=On the trail of terror|first=Brian|last=Duffy|journal=U.S. News & World Report|date=18 November 1989}}
* "Flight 103," ''ABC News Prime Time Live'', 30 November 1989
* {{Cite news|title=Lockerbie bomb bore 'Libyan signature|first=Leonard|last=Doyle|newspaper=The Independent|location=UK |date=19 December 1990}}
* {{cite journal|title=Unwitting Accomplices?|journal=Barron's|date=17 December 1989}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,,334505,00.html "Timer admission in Lockerbie trial"] by Gerard Seenan, 21 June 2000
* Mr. Waldegrave, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604220658/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-04-19/Writtens-5.html "House of Commons Hansard Debates"] in The [[United Kingdom Parliament]], 19 April 1990. Retrieved 16 June 2005
* {{cite book|last=Thatcher|first=Margaret|author-link=Margaret Thatcher|title=The Downing Street Years|url=https://archive.org/details/downingstreetyea00that|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780060170561}}
* Koechler, H., and Jason Subler (eds.), [http://i-p-o.org/sirxxvii.htm ''The Lockerbie Trial. Documents Related to the I.P.O. Observer Mission.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904084953/http://i-p-o.org/sirxxvii.htm |date=4 September 2006 }} Studies in International Relations, Vol. XXVII. Vienna: [[International Progress Organization]], 2002, {{ISBN|3-900704-21-X}}.
* [http://i-p-o.org/lockerbie_observer_mission.htm "Scottish Court in the Netherlands 2000–2002"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051120074636/http://i-p-o.org/lockerbie_observer_mission.htm |date=20 November 2005 }}, Web site documenting the observer mission of [[Hans Köchler|Dr. Hans Koechler]], appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as international observer at the Lockerbie trial, regularly updated, [[International Progress Organization]]. Retrieved 2005
* {{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Dan and Susan|year=2000|title=Pan Am 103: the Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice|publisher=Signet |isbn=0-451-20270-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Dornstein|first=Ken|year=2006|title=The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky|publisher=Random House|isbn=0-375-50359-5|url=https://archive.org/details/boywhofelloutofs00dorn}}
* {{Cite book|last=Leppard|first=David|year=1992|title=On the Trail of Terror}}
* {{Cite book|last=Marquise|first=Richard A.|year=2006|title=Scotbom: Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation|publisher=Algora |isbn=978-0-87586-449-5}}
* {{Cite book|title=Report of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism|date=15 May 1990|url=http://www.policyfutures.com/PCAST/PCASTreport.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040722031807/http://policyfutures.com/PCAST/PCASTreport.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 July 2004|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}
* Kreindler, James P., ''The Lockerbie Case and its Implications for State-Sponsored Terrorism'', in: Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2007)
* Haldane, Jill S., ''An' then the world came tae oor doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories'' (The Grimsay Press, 2008). [http://thegrimsaypress.co.uk/biblio/1845300637.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219124950/http://thegrimsaypress.co.uk/biblio/1845300637.htm |date=19 December 2013 }}
* {{Cite web |title=Lockerbie pair 'could have survived' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/267865.stm |publisher=[[BBC News]] |access-date=28 March 2015 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402183810/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/267865.stm |url-status=live }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{External media
|float  =right
|image1 =[http://www.airliners.net/search?keywords=N739PA&sortBy=dateAccepted&sortOrder=desc&perPage=36&display=detail airliners.net's Photo gallery]
}}
* [http://archives.syr.edu/panam/ Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives] at [[Syracuse University]]
<!--Even though the AAIB reports are used as refs, they are so important that they MUST be in the EL section!!!!-->
* [[Air Accident Investigation Branch]]:
** [https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/5422f36ee5274a1317000489/2-1990_N739PA.pdf Aircraft Accident Report 2/1990 – Report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA, at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988]."
** [http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/2%2D1990%20N739PA%20Append%2Epdf 2/1990 Aircraft Accident Report 2/1990, Appendices A–G]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7586498.stm BBC-online interview with Jaswant Basuta]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20031223085218/https://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec03/panam121903.htm "Byte Out Of History: Solving a complex case of international terrorism"] [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080308085805/http://www.dia.mil/publicaffairs/Foia/panam103.pdf Defense Intelligence Agency Redacted Pan Am Report] (response to a FOIA, 11&nbsp;MB PDF) ([https://web.archive.org/web/20080308085805/http://www.dia.mil/publicaffairs/Foia/panam103.pdf Archive])
* {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk67ASDsLJI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/tk67ASDsLJI |archive-date=21 December 2021 |url-status=live|title=It Happened in... Lockerbie – 20 August 09 – Part 1|publisher=[[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]|date=20 August 2009}}{{cbignore}}
* [http://i-p-o.org/lockerbie_observer_mission.htm International observer mission of the president of the International Progress Organization, Dr. Hans Koechler, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands ("Lockerbie Court")]
* [http://www.victimsofpanamflight103.org/ Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, Inc.]
* {{Cite web |title=Probe identifies Iranian and Palestinian suspects over Lockerbie bomb |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/3/11/probe-identifies-suspects-over-lockerbie-bomb |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}

{{Pan Am Flight 103}}
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{{Aviation accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom in the 1980s}}
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