Pan Am Flight 103 Air Crash Investigation Conclusions

By Anita Ortega


Investigators sort to establish what happened 38 minutes after takeoff that lead to the death of 270 people on board the Pan Am flight 103. This mystery guided the Pan Am flight 103 air crash investigation with the center of focus being Lockerbie in Scotland. Preliminary findings indicated that a bomb had been hidden at the cargo section in a way that was concealed from the crew in charge. Of the 270 who died, 259 were crew and passengers traveling to New York while 11 died at the site of the crash.

At the time the bomb went off, the plane is said to have been cruising 31,000 feet in the sky. The report implicated Libyan terrorists. The conclusion was as a result of thousands of pieces of debris collected from the site and information from other sources. Investigators assembled the plane in a warehouse to aid in identifying the location of the bomb. The crash attracted the attention of world media because of the nature of attack and magnitude of loss.

Investigators sifted through evidence and presentations for three years before implicating two Libyans. They were Al Amin Khalifa and Abdel Baset. The evidence presented during the trial of these two individuals did not implicated Khalifa. This led to his release while Al-Amin was sent to prison for life. Libya took responsibility and paid a total of 2.7 billion dollars in fines.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch in UK handles all accidents on its airspace. They took over the case and combed an area of approximate 2000 square kilometers where they collected over 4million pieces of debris. They had to use the support of computers to document every piece that was collected.

Investigations took a criminal angle when the bomb theory care to fore. There were traces of PETN and RDX, chemicals that cause Semtex explosions. The bomb was said to have been entered in Frankfurt. Investigators were drawn from the FBI, Scotland Yard and local police.

The entry of Americans into the investigations was because of the 189 citizens who formed part of the 270 people on board. Such a huge figure of deaths was only overtaken by the terrorist attack on 9/11. Court proceedings witnessed the presentation of 3,500 photos, 180,000 pieces as evidence and the testimonies of 15,000 people. 20 countries were covered during investigation. Libya took responsibility after UN imposed sanctions.

The total budget for investigations and trial amounted to 60 million dollars. This was a record breaking budget with 230 people being called to testify. Transcriptions for court proceedings went up to 10,000 pages while the total time taken for testimonies was 89 days. Despite all these investigations, some quotas claimed that the crash took a global political angle. This led the perpetrators to escape as investigators chased Libya. There was a claim that Iran was responsible through the aid of Palestinians. This was to retaliate for their plane that was grounded by Americans killing 290 people in the Persian Gulf.

The conflict between Iran and America brought a dark cloud over the investigations with Libya being used as a scapegoat. This explains why it took a very long time and UN sanctions to accept responsibilities. Some people feel that the truth will never be known.




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