Pan Am Flight 103


The remains of the forward section from Clipper Maid of the Seas on Tundergarth Hill

Bombing
Date: 21 December 1988
Summary: In-flight breakup due to terrorist bombing
Site: Lockerbie, Scotland
Coordinates: 55°06'56"N 003°21'31"W
Total fatalities: 270

Aircraft
Aircraft type: Boeing 747-121
Aircraft name: Clipper Maid of the Seas
Operator: Pan American World Airways
IATA flight No.: PA103
ICAO flight No.: PAA103
Call sign: CLIPPER 103
Registration: N739PA
Flight origin: Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, West Germany
1st stopover: Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
2nd stopover: John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, New York, United States
Destination: Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Michigan, United States
Occupants: 259
Passengers: 243
Crew: 16
Fatalities: 259
Survivors: 0

Ground casualties
Ground fatalities: 11

Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.

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Victims

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Passengers

Syracuse University students

Thirty-five of the passengers were students from 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) which partnered with Syracuse in order for them to be allowed to study overseas by enrolling in the said program.

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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 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 Abu Nidal Organization; he said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier.

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"; the security team in Frankfurt found the warning under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing. One of the Frankfurt security screeners, whose job was to spot explosive devices under X-ray, told ABC News that she had first learned what Semtex (a plastic explosive) was during her ABC interview 11 months after the bombing.

On 13 December, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the US Embassy in Moscow and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists and businessmen.

PLO warning

Just days before the sabotage of the aircraft, 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.

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