December 21, 1988.
Pan American flight 103 departs London’s Heathrow Airport en-route to Detroit via New York.
It never arrives.
One hour into the flight, just before 7pm, the plane exploded and crashed to the ground over the small Scottish village of Lockerbie.
All 243 passengers and 16 crew perished. In addition, 11 people on the ground were killed. Total fatalities 270.
Named “Clipper Maid of the Seas”, the aircraft was a Boeing 747 type 100, one of the earliest made. It first flew in 1970.
Whilst initial suspicion lay with the age of the aircraft and therefore possible structural failure of the airframe, it was later discovered that a bomb brought the jet down.
The bomb was concealed inside a Toshiba “Bombeat” radio cassette recorder which was amongst the luggage, but not assigned to any specific passenger.
Here is the original CBS News broadcast announcing the disaster (courtesy YouTube):
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| The nose-cone landed about 35km away from Lockerbie on Tundergarth Hill |
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| The plane’s wings, along with tanks carrying 100 tons of jet fuel, plummeted into Lockerbie’s Sherwood Crescent neighbourhood, creating an inferno and a crater more than 150 feet deep. AP Photo: File, courtesy ABC News |
35 students from the University of Syracuse, returning home for Christmas, were among the passengers.
Each year, the University holds a remembrance week as a mark of respect for those students who lost their lives. Visit the memorial website here.