An American journalist who approached one of the detectives to ask whether he was from Lockerbie was told "No comment" in a broad Scottish accent, which was taken as confirmation, and the story reached David Leppard, then an investigative reporter with the Insight team of the Sunday Times, who published the story. Tbone1001. FBI agents and international investigators combed the countryside on hands and knees looking for clues in virtually every blade of grass, eventually turning up thousands of pieces of evidence. Once alerted by Edwin Bollier of Mebo to the Megrahi–Fhimah friendship and business relationship, Scottish police obtained permission to search Fhimah's office in Malta. Additionally, security guard Ray Manley had reported that Heathrow’s Pan Am baggage area had been broken into 17 hours before the flight, though this report was misplaced. DERA's timer fragment, which was subsequently designated as PT/35(b), would eventually lead detectives via its Swiss manufacturer to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Before the detectives left his store that day, Gauci remembered something else. A properly marked Air Malta baggage tag would have routed the suitcase through the interline system from Malta to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to London, and London to New York City. A further 24 items of luggage, including clothing, were determined by DERA to have been within a very close range of the suitcase when it exploded, and probably inside it. Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit, via London and New York. Among the mysteries surrounding the timerfragment is how, when, and by whom, it was found. UK-US relations with Libya were being 'normalised' following Libya's agreement to extradite al-Megrahi and Fhimahfor trial and its abandonment of its allegedly belligerent stance over previously core issues of policy on trade, oil and support for groups antagonistic to Western interests. The perpetrators of the crime against the passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 103 had intended that it crash at sea, leaving no physical evidence and no bodies to tell the tale. Which best describes the role of the forensic engineers in the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation? Dr Hayes testified that he also found embedded a half-inch fragment of green circuit board. [30] These records were to show that an unaccompanied bag had been routed from Air Malta Flight KM 180 out of Luqa Airport to Frankfurt, where it had been loaded onto Pan Am 103A, the feeder flight to London. A DIA briefing in December 1989 entitled “Pan Am 103, Deadly Co-operation” confirmed the American belief that Iran was the state sponsor of the bombing. Air Crash Disasters - 2of8 - Pan Am Flight 103. [27], On July 18, 2007 Mebo's electronics engineer, Ulrich Lumpert, admitted he had given false evidence about the timer at the trial. As well as the Babygro carrying the label "Made in Malta" detectives discovered that Yorkie-brand trousers are manufactured in Ireland and Malta by Yorkie Clothing. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of killing 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie in south-west Scotland in December 1988. Evidence made by forensic scientists aids law enforcement officers. A Libyan, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, had been found guilty of the crime the day before, January 31, 2001, by a Scottish court in the Hague, though his co-defendant, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted. One year ago Thursday, the New York-bound Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and crew members. The bomb, one of five, had been in the possession of members of the Damascus–based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), led by Ahmed Jibril, a former Syrian army captain. The searchers were divided into groups of eight or ten, with the instruction: "If it isn't growing and it isn't a rock, pick it up. At approximately 38 minutes while in the air, it exploded. In August 1989, Scottish detectives flew to Malta to speak to the owner, who directed them to Yorkie's main outlet on the island—Mary's House in Sliema, run by Tony Gauci, who became the prosecution's most important witness. Among the mysteries surrounding the timer fragment is how, when, and by whom, it was found. Ultimately, forensic specialists from the FBI, the CIA, and elsewhere determined that one of the fragments found on the ground, no bigger than a thumbnail, came from the circuit board of a radio/cassette player. (Points : 1) [24], Investigators discovered that Mebo stood for Meister & Bollier, an electronics firm in Zürich, Switzerland. Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories suggest a number of possible explanations for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh took place on October 11, 2007 when prosecution and defence lawyers discussed legal issues with a panel of three judges. 12/19/03. Over a thousand police officers and soldiers carried out fingertip searches of the crash site that lasted for months, retrieving 4 million pieces[4] from the fields and forests of southern Scotland. The Procurator Fiscal holds a commission from the Lord Advocate, who is Scotland's chief law officer (and prior to devolution in 1999 was simultaneously a UK government minister). The NTSB, and British Investigators worked on what caused the crash. 3. On December 28, 1988, just a week after the crash, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch announced that they had found traces of high explosives and that there was evidence that Pan Am 103 had been brought down by an improvised explosive device (IED). Or, in yet another story from a former investigator, police found it while combing the ground on their hands and knees. Pan Am flight 103 was on its transatlantic leg when it was blown into pieces by a bomb. Reconstructed the accident. [6] Though the floor of the container was damaged, there was no blackening or pitting of it. Which best describes the role of the forensic engineers in the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation? Libya refused to extradite the two accused, but held them under armed house arrest in Tripoli, offering to detain them for trial in Libya, as long as all the incriminating evidence was provided. Question 3. Because of the charring, it was sent for analysis to the DERA forensic explosives laboratory at Fort Halstead in Kent. He told the court that he had met Megrahi on that occasion for the first time, believing him to be a major in the Libyan army and a relative of Gaddafi's. The Pan Am Flight 103 at Lockerbie, Scotland blew up at 31,000 feet after it left London. Debris from the plane was scattered over an 845-square-mile area, and Scottish investigators meticulously searched for and catalogued evidence. It … The explosion killed all 259 passengers on board and took 11 lives on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. Like the rest of the site, it is a work in progress, not necessarily to be regarded as definitive. [19] Thurman was not called to testify. Thirty years after the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the FBI and its partners are still actively seeking justice for the 270 victims and their families. The newspapers were filled with pictures of happy relatives of the victims of the December 21, 1988 bombing of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The next reference to this circuit board fragment was on September 15, 1989, when Alan Feraday of DERA sent a Polaroid photograph of it to the police officer leading the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector William Williamson, asking for help in identification and with a covering note saying this was "the best that I can do in such a short time". In the BBC Two The Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie[16] shown on August 31, 2008, it was claimed that one significant reason for Megrahi's latest appeal was that Gauci, who had picked him out in a line-up, had seen a magazine photograph of him just four days before he made the identification. On December 21, 1988, on a cold and ultimately chilling evening just four days before Christmas, Pan Am Flight 103 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport bound for New York City. The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 cost the lives of 190 Americans. [This quote needs a citation]. Bollier wanted to pursue this discrepancy, but was told by trial Judge, Lord Sutherland, that he could not do so. [12] Police at the trial said that the paper had been damaged following a series of forensic tests. [21], The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) considered all these issues and decided in June 2007 to refer Megrahi's case back for a fresh appeal. Forensic scientists catch the suspects. The baggage had been x-rayed by Sulkash Kamboj of Alert Security, an affiliate company of Pan Am. Wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103. Gauci had asked him whether he also wanted to buy an umbrella, and he did. Oran Esley. "A lover and his lass" found the fragment while strolling in the forest, according to one police source close to the case. Participating in the investigation were an array of international police organizations from such countries as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and, of course, Great Britain (including Scotland). Forensic scientists analyze evidence. Pan Am Flight 103 exploded into pieces almost instantaneously when a bomb in the forward cargo area exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, at 7:03 p.m. local time at an altitude of 31,000 feet after 38 minutes of flight. The suitcases loaded onto that particular container, the court concluded, came from the Pan Am feeder flight (Pan Am 103A) from Frankfurt. After the explosion, most of these containers showed damage consistent with a fall from 31,000 feet (9,400 m), but two of them—metal container AVE4041 and fibre container AVN7511—showed unusual damage. The fuselage skin had been bent and torn back in a so-called starburst pattern—petalled outwards—a pattern that was evidence of an explosion. Forensic scientists catch the suspects. 0:59. Which best describes how forensic scientists used experimentation in the investigation of Pan Am Flight 103? A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Investigators found an area on the left side of the lower fuselage in the forward cargo hold, directly under the aircraft's navigation and communications systems, where a small section of about 20-inch (0.51 m) square had been completely shattered, with signs of pitting and sooting. Which best describes the role of the forensic engineers in the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation? High-resolution photographs from spy satellites were also provided by the United States Department of Defense and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. [23], In January 2009, it was reported that although Megrahi's second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin on 27 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. At this stage the forensic evidence appeared robust and no credible doubt has been raised in the years since the event that this was the method by which the plane was destroyed. At the meeting were McKee and Gannon, who would die in the Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.” Nir may have had evidence of Bush’s involvement in Iran-Contra and even in the COREA drug smuggling group? Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who headed up the investigation while Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, described the impact the case had on him personally: “The constables in charge of the Scottish end of the investigation had constructed a small wooden warehouse in which were stored the various effects of those who were on the plane when it broke apart in the skies: a white sneaker never again to be worn by the teenager; a Syracuse sweatshirt never again to be worn by the Syracuse student, and other such everyday pieces of clothing and personal belongings. The Bombing of PanAm Flight 103: Case Not Closed . They also traversed the globe, interviewing more than 10,000 individuals in dozens of countries. (Points : 1) A police officer walks on Dec. 21, 1988, by the nose of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie, Scotland, where it lay after a bomb aboard exploded, killing a total of … Another small fragment, found embedded in a piece of shirt, helped identify the type of timer. Captain Jim MacQuarrie apologised to the passengers for the delay which meant flight Pan Am 103 to New York was 30 minutes behind schedule. He teased out the cloth and found within it fragments of white paper, fragments of black plastic, a fragment of metal and a fragment of wire mesh—all subsequently found to be fragments of a Toshiba RT-SF 16 and its manual. Gauci had seen this customer before and, he told police, had seen him since the bombing, too, in Malta, just a few weeks previously. The problem is that without any real evidence to go on, many conspiracy theories die off or become the story of one or two individuals. Forensic scientist analyze evidence. "[5] They were asked to look out particularly for items which might be charred and which might therefore have been close to an explosion. 6.25pm Pan Am Flight 103 got permission from the control tower to take … Rumours spread around the island that the Lockerbie police were in Malta looking for the bomber. … Thurman's involvement in identifying the fragment later proved controversial because of a 1997 report on the FBI Laboratory, unrelated to the PA 103 investigation, written by U.S. Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, which concluded that Thurman had altered lab reports in ways that had rendered them inaccurate, and that he ought to be transferred to a position outside the FBI lab (The Wall Street Journal, September 26, 1997). Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Forensic scientists analyze evidence. From the loading plan, investigators saw that AVE4041 had been situated inboard of, and slightly above, the starburst-patterned hole in the fuselage, with AVN7511 right next to it. It is the weak link in airline security, because provided it is tagged correctly a bag not properly x-rayed by a low-risk airline in a low-risk airport may be routed without further checks through several other airports to high-risk airlines. Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories suggest a number of possible explanations for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. [11] Later, during the trial, Mrs Horton could not positively identify the official exhibit as the same piece of paper she had found, claiming later that the paper she had found had been more or less intact and not in several pieces. The forward cargo hold had been loaded with 148-cubic-foot (4.2 m3) capacity baggage containers, made either of fiberglass or aluminium, and filled with suitcases. World News from PA Media. Which best describes the role of the forensic engineers in the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation? The PA 103 investigators learned that the baggage for Air Malta Flight KM 180 was processed at the same time as the bags for Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 147 to Tripoli. Doubt has since been cast on the reliability of Gauci as a witness; five years after the trial, former Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, publicly described Gauci as being "an apple short of a picnic" and "not quite the full shilling",[14] and it was revealed in 2007 by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission that Gauci was interviewed 17 times by Scottish and Maltese police during which he made a series of inconclusive statements. He knew they wouldn't mind a brief hold-up, but he would never know how historically important it would become. However, an appeals panel rejected this argument as grounds for a retrial. Air Malta has been informed that all 55 pieces of baggage have been accounted for and that every one of the 39 passengers has been identified," Air Malta declared. They later discovered that Megrahi had been a passenger on this flight, having arrived in Malta two days earlier using a false passport. Which best describes how forensic scientists used experimentation in the investigation of Pan Am Flight 103? The Libyan government took responsibility for the crime. Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 en route from London to New York, carrying mostly Americans on their way home for Christmas. The documents are understood to relate to the Mebo MST-13 timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb. Those responsible for the mid-air explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 will have to be identified and brought to justice. On 3 May 2000, the trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah began. Testimony in the trial of the two Libyans accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 has deepened speculation regarding the bomb's location in … The singed instruction manual for the Toshiba cassette player was found in a field 70 miles from Lockerbie by Gwendoline Horton the day after the crash. This evidence led to two Libyan intelligence operatives. All 269 passengers and crew on the flight and 11 people on the ground were killed in the bombing. Air Crash Investigation Disasters Pan Am Flight 103 Boeing 747 . A Byte Out of History Solving a Complex Case of International Terrorism. Testimony indicated that on J… The flight took place on December 21st, 1988. A Scottish police artist flew to Malta to compile a detailed sketch of the man. It emerged at the trial that one of the owners, Edwin Bollier, had sold twenty MST-13 timers (identical to the one found in Senegal) to Libya in 1985, in the hope of winning a contract to supply the Libyan military. An analysis by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DERA forensic teams of the fine carbon deposits on AVE4041 and AVN7511 indicated that a chemical explosion had occurred; that a 12-ounce (340 g) to 16-ounce (450 g) charge of plastic explosive had been used; and that the device had exploded 8 inches (200 mm) from the left side of the container. Any chance of arresting the suspect in Malta was lost. A man found the fragment while walking his dog, according to another version. Every item picked up was tagged, placed in a clear plastic bag, labelled and taken to the gymnasium of a local school, where everything was X-rayed and checked for explosive residue with a gas chromatograph, after which the information was entered into the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System. [7] Investigators were left in no doubt that these items had been wrapped around the bomb inside the Samsonite suitcase. All parts of the recovered aircraft were taken initially to a hangar at Longtown, Cumbria, where they were examined by investigators from Britain's AAIB; they were then moved to the AAIB's headquarters at Farnborough Airfield in Hampshire for the fuselage of the Boeing 747 to be partially reconstructed. Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 en route from London to New York, carrying mostly Americans on their way home for Christmas. The tests involved using metal containers loaded with luggage, and detonating plastic explosive within Toshiba radio cassette players in garment-filled suitcases, so as to replicate the sooting and pitting pattern of AVE4041. The flight took place on December 21st, 1988. Moises Tvtv. It was the worst crash in British History. On December 27, 2018 'Wired', an online news website published a long article, it highlights that the head of the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division, Robert Mueller oversaw the case. On January 31, 2001, after years of working to extradite the men and bring the case to trial, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi was found guilty of the crime. That tiny piece of evidence helped establish that the bomb had been placed inside that radio and tape deck in a piece of luggage. Pan AM Flight 103: Was Lockerbie bomber really guilty? 49:02. Recently, the Libyan government formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and has agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to the victims’ families. The first important piece of physical evidence was the reconstruction of the aircraft itself, which the court found indicated that there had been a bomb detonation in cargo container AVE 4041. The perpetrators had intended the plane to crash into the sea, destroying any traceable evidence, but the late departure time of the aircraft meant that its explosion over land left a veritable trail of evidence. These ordinary items brought home to me, and came to symbolize for me, the pain and the loss felt by those whose family, friends, or colleagues died that evening.”, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. government, U.S. Department of Justice. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The explosion of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scottland killed all on board the plane, and 15 people on the ground. In June 1990, Feraday and DCI Williamson were said to have visited FBI headquarters in Washington and, together with Thomas Thurman, an FBI explosives expert, identified the fragment as coming from a type of timer circuit board similar to the one in the timer that had been seized from a Libyan intelligence agent, Mohammad al-Marzouk, who had been arrested in Dakar airport, Senegal ten months before PA 103 (The Independent, December 19, 1990). The latter became the accepted version when evidence was given at the trial. British military helicopters flew over the crash site, pointing out large pieces of wreckage to the search parties. In November 1991, Megrahi and Fhimah were indicted by the US Attorney General and the Scottish Lord Advocate for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Not only has Mr Lumpert admitted to stealing a sample of the timer, but to the fact he gave it to an official and then lied in court". Contained within this herringbone material were five clumps of blue and white fibres consistent with the blue Babygro material. ABC News Brief - Elizabeth Dole Qaddafi Pan Am 103 Lockerbie - 1988. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the deadly bombing, but many believe his conviction was a miscarriage of justice. Evidence made by forensic scientists aids law enforcement officers. DUMFRIES, Scotland (AP) _ Two passengers might have survived the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 had they received the best medical care immediately, a Scottish pathologist testified Wednesday. Pan Am 103 Bombing On December 21, 1988, on a cold and ultimately chilling evening just four days before Christmas, Pan Am Flight 103 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport bound for New York City. DUMFRIES, Scotland (AP) _ Two passengers might have survived the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 had they received the best medical care immediately, a Scottish pathologist testified Wednesday. Potentially also damaging to the Crown's case as presented at the trial, the testimony of Thurman's UK counterpart, DERA's Alan Feraday, has now been called into question. This label was the first indication of possible Libyan involvement. Continue Reading. However, days later the Sunday Times of London became aware of the story, not least because of the Scottish detectives' habit of going for a walk together at lunchtime every day, conspicuous as a group in their black police officers' trousers and white shirts. This match confirmed to the Scots that the man Gauci had sold the clothes to was, indeed, the man they were looking for. The flight now weighed 323 tons and there were 259 people on board. A man found the fragment while walking his dog, according to another version. Funding the investigation quickly became a political issue and Margaret Thatcher announced that central government, not the Scottish Office, would meet any additional costs involved. From this, and the distribution of sooting and pitting elsewhere, investigators calculated that the suitcase containing the bomb had not rested on the floor, but had probably been on top of another case, though there was no proof that the explosion had occurred in a suitcase. Less than 40 minutes into the flight, the plane exploded over the sky above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board and 11 Scots on the ground. )[26], Bollier testified at the trial that the Scottish police had originally shown him a fragment of a brown 8-ply circuit board, of a prototype timer which had never been supplied to Libya. Question 3. [25] After that meeting, Bollier said that Megrahi and his co-accused, Fhimah, who he believed were good friends, had set up a travel business together under the name ABH in the Mebo offices in Zürich. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Which best describes the role of the forensic engineers in the Pan Am flight 103 investigation? He described the man as "5 ft 10 in, muscular, and clean-shaven" (U.S. News & World Report, November 18, 1989). The perpetrators of the crime against the passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 103 had intended that it crash at sea, leaving no physical evidence and no bodies to tell the tale. With the mid-air explosion 30,000 feet up, debris rained down over 845 square miles across Scotland. The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103 is an attempt to summarise the story of Pan Am Flight 103 which on 21 December 1988 exploded at 31,000 feet killing all 259 people on board, and 11 in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Part of the 2009 Trace Evidence Symposium at the NFSTC - http://projects.nfstc.org/trace/2009/ Which best describes the role of the forensic engineers in the Pan Am flight 103 investigation? Solving the case required unprecedented international cooperation—and hours upon hours of painstaking work. With the company's help, DERA discovered there were seven models in which the printed circuit board bore exactly the same details as the Lockerbie fragments. In addition, a legal source said that there was evidence that leading questions had been put to Gauci.[15]. Additional details are given.[3]. 52:40. Lockerbie: When Pan Am Flight 103 exploded on a small Scottish town. The plane had taken off from London-Heathrow and was en route to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. (Fhimah has acknowledged he worked for the airline but says he left the job three months before the bombing. ... Forensic experts eventually traced a thumbnail-sized bit of evidence to a cassette player … [22] One of the issues concerns a number of documents from an undisclosed source country that were shown to the prosecution but were not disclosed to the defence. The second appeal will be heard by five judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal. From Wikispooks. With the help of luggage manufacturers, it was determined that the fragments had been part of a brown, hardshell, Samsonite suitcase of the 26-inch (660 mm) Silhouette 4000 range. 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, in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Trapped between two pieces of Babygro fibres were the remains of a label with the words "Made in Malta". For had the plane moved off on time, detonation would probably have occurred over the sea. Interline baggage is baggage checked onto a flight in one location and automatically routed by the airline to other locations. Responsibility for the Lockerbie investigation thus rested with Jimmy McDougall, the Procurator Fiscal in the nearby burgh of Dumfries, and with the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, by number of officers the smallest police force in the UK.
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