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Thursday 29 May 2014

Pan Am Flight 103 Air Crash Investigation Report

By Lila Bryant


The small town of Lockerbie in Scotland witnessed the Pan Am flight 103 disaster which claimed the lives of 270 people. Inquiry into this disaster stretched to cover 20 countries. The final Pan Am flight 103 air crash investigation findings indicated that a bomb was responsible for the death of 259 on board and the 11 who perished on the ground. Findings that a bomb was involved escalated the investigations to term it as a terrorist act.

The analysis revealed that the plan was traveling at 31,000 feet in the sky when it exploded. It was termed as a terrorist attack and the blame was laid on Libya. Investigations involved piecing together the debris in a warehouse in order to establish the cause and circumstances surrounding the crash. This became the worst plane disaster that involved terrorism and attracted world media to the small town.

Evidence presented by prosecutors implicated Libyans in the terror attack. Two of her citizens went on trial for acts of terrorism. They were Abdel Baset and Khalifa Al-Amin. The evidence presented was used to set Khalifa free but Abdel was sentenced to life in prison. It was claimed that the plane was brought down under instructions from the Libyan authorities. Libya was slapped with a 2.7 billion dollar compensation bill for aiding the terrorists.

Investigations were led by the UK Air Accident Investigation branch. They took over the responsibility because the accident occurred in within their airspace. A whopping 4 million pieces of debris and evidence were collected with the entire accident area covering over 2000 square kilometers. Computer simulations were necessary in documenting and ordering the pieces.

Involvement of terrorists brought a new dimension into the probe. Investigators found PETN and RDX chemicals which cause Semtex explosion. A combined team of local police, Scotland Yard and FBI carried out the investigations. The bomb could have gained its way into the plane at Frankfurt.

American took keen interest in this inquiry because of fatalities suffered in the disaster. A total of 189 Americans died on board. This was said to be the worst disaster in American history involving the aviation industry. The next disasters to claim such a number of people was the 9/11 attack on Twin Towers. Testimonies were collected from 15,000 people with over 3,500 photos being presented as evidence. The exhibits totaled 180,000. The expenses for this inquiry surpassed any in history.

The cost of inquiry totaled more than 60 million dollars. 230 witnesses were called to testify over a trial that lasted a total of 89 days. Transcripts for the trail went beyond 10,000 pages. Authorities in Libya claimed that they were not involved in the said attack but were only used as excuses for political reasons. This brought to fore the theory that Palestine was involved instead.

Iran was said to harbor a grudge against America for killing 290 of her citizens in the Persian Gulf sometime back. This was a reason enough to cause them to bring down the plane. Libya conceded to the blame and paid compensation after suctions were imposed. Such turn of events and variety of theories make it difficult to find the truth about this disaster.




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