N739PA, the aircraft operating the transatlantic leg of the route, was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew. Large sections of the aircraft crashed onto a residential street in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 11 people on the ground. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder. He died in May 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack.
About Pan Am Flight 103 in brief
Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York City. On 21 December 1988, N739PA, the aircraft operating the transatlantic leg of the route, was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew. Large sections of the aircraft crashed onto a residential street in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 11 people on the ground. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing. He died in May 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack. Some relatives of the dead believe the bomb was planted at Heathrow Airport and not sent via feeder flights from Malta, as the US and UK claim. A cell belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had been operating in West Germany in the months before the Pan Am bombing. Contrary to many popular accounts of the disaster, the flight, which had a scheduled gate departure time of 18: 00, left Heathrow airport on time. After the bombing, the flight number was changed, in accordance with standard practice among airlines after disasters. Within days, the Frankfurt–London–New York–Detroit route was being served by Pan Am Flight 3. In 2003, Gaddafi accepted responsibility for the bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims, although he maintained that he had never given the order for the attacks.
During the First Libyan Civil War in 2011, former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil claimed that the Libyan leader had personally ordered the attack, though this was later denied. Investigators have long believed that Megrahi did not act alone, and have been reported as questioning retired Stasi agents about a possible role in the attack before he died in 2012. In 1978, as Clipper Morning Light, it had appeared in the fourth episode of the BBC Television documentary series Diamonds in the Sky, presented by Julian Pettifer. It was the 15th 747 built, and was delivered in February 1970, one month after the first 747 entered service with Pan Am. The aircraft, which operated the flight’s trans Atlantic leg, pushed back from the terminal at 18: 04, en route for New York JFK Airport and on to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. At 18: 58, the Clipper Maid of the Seas approached the corner of the Solway Ocean Area Control Area in Prestwick, and crossed the corner at 19: 01. Subsequent analysis of the radar showed that the aircraft was travelling at 321° and travelling at a speed of 803km/h. At 19: 44, the plane was flying at 31,000 feet on a heading of 316 degrees magnetic, and at a altitude of 313,000ft. In August 2009, he was released by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
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This page is based on the article Pan Am Flight 103 published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 17, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
