mardi 3 juin 2014

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.

Experts concluded that at the time of the explosion, the plane must have been traveling at a height of 31,000 feet. Libya took the blame for the act which was termed at terrorism. The debris was reassembled in a warehouse to establish the cause of this disaster. It is considered the worst attack in the history of American aviation. A lot of media attention was focused on every small detail of these investigations.

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.

The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch spearheaded the investigations because the accident happened within their air space. The debris that was gathered in this disaster area totaled around 4 million pieces. The area covered by investigations stretched to 2000 square kilometers. Documentation and simulation had to be done using computers in order to piece the debris together.

Claims that terrorists were involved shifted the focus of investigating teams. The chemical compounds that were found on site included RDX and PETN. The type of explosion witnessed was said to be Semtex. The teams involved in these investigations included FBI, local police and Scotland Yard. Frankfurt was suspected to be the loading port for the bomb.

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.

The possibility that Iran was responsible was heightened by the fact that they had a long standing conflict with American. American had grounded an Iranian plane which killed to 290 Iranians on board in the Persian Gulf. It took international sanctions to compel Libya into accepting responsibility. The politics surrounding the disaster makes it difficult to know the truth.




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