The FBI announced on December 21 that the agency is still investigating the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people over Lockerbie, Scotland, more than three decades ago.
“Thirty-three years after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the (FBI) and our partners are still seeking justice for the 270 victims,” the FBI posted on Twitter.
On December 21, 1988, a suitcase bomb ripped a hole in Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, United Kingdom, killing 270 people. Until 9/11, it was the deadliest act of terrorism involving Americans.
“The magnitude of that crash never really hit home to most people in the United States. I don’t know that it hit home to most people in the FBI,” said Dick Marquise, Special Agent (Retired) FBI.
Marquise was interviewed in the FBI’s 22-minute documentary Remembering Pan Am Flight 103: 30 Years Later. He said that the crime scene was 845 square miles in size, and it was the first time the FBI was involved in investigating and finally resolving a major international terrorist assault against Americans in collaboration with other agencies and nations.
Even though the person who checked it never boarded the aircraft, the suitcase went through Frankfurt and London airports with minimal examination.
Fox News reported, “In 1991, the British and American governments charged Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah with the attack. Fhimah was acquitted, but al Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison.”
However, the FBI was well aware that more individuals were involved in the planning and execution of the terrorist attack, so the investigation continued.
In December 2020, The Justice Department charged Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi for his role in the explosion, Fox 4 reports. He is not in US custody, and it is unclear if he ever will be or if the evidence will be sufficient for conviction.
According to US officials, Masud acknowledged manufacturing the bomb in the Pan Am attack and collaborating with two other conspirators to carry it out. An FBI document revealed that Masud told Libyan law enforcement that he traveled to Malta to meet al-Megrahi and Fhimah.
The affidavit states he delivered to Fhimah a medium-sized Samsonite suitcase containing a bomb, with the timer for the device set to explode precisely 11 hours later. According to the FBI, he then flew to Tripoli.
The Pan Am attack marked the most recent escalation in the conflict between Libya and the West. Libya was implicated in the years leading up to the flight for the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque, which killed two American soldiers and injured dozens more. Masud reportedly admitted to being involved in the discotheque bombing as well.
According to the FBI, the Libyan government has formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and has agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to the victims’ families.
