The Kansas CW | Kansan Among Those on Pan Am Flight 103
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The lasting image of Pan Am Flight 103. (AP photo)
Aerial View of the Nose of the "Maid Clipper of the Seas" (AP photo)
Wreckage scattered about Lockerbie, Scotland (AP photo)
The remains of Flight 103 today, in a junkyard not far from the crash site. (The Daily Mail)By Chris Durden (WICHITA, Kan.)
Twenty-years ago Sunday, a bomb brought down Pan Am Flight 103. Two-hundred seventy people died when the Boeing 747 crashed, most of them Americans.
Lloyd David Ludlow was among those killed. He was born in Mackland, got married in Larned and his family lived in Hutchinson. Ludlow was a sergeant in the Army, married and a father of three. He was coming home for his sister's funeral on the flight from London to New York.
His plane, named "Clipper Maid of the Seas", took off from London's Heathrow Airport on the night of December 21. A bomb, hidden in a suitcase, exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people on the plane were killed. Eleven people died when the plane, filled with enough fuel for a trans-atlantic trip, slammed into the village below.
Investigators say the explosion, disintegration and impact happened in a matter of seconds. Crash investigators with the FAA determined the flight crew didn't even have time to begin emergency procedures. Investigators concluded the nose of the plane separated from the fuselage within seconds of the explosion.
The task of identifying the remains proved difficult. Some remains were never positively identified. Others were never found. Among those involved with the investigation was forensic pathologist Dr. William G. Eckert of Wichita State. He told investigators it's likely some of the passengers survived the explosion and may have even been alive as the plane fell to the ground.
Days before Flight 103 left Heathrow, a threat was made against an unnamed Pan Am flight from Frankfurt, Germany (where 103 originated) to the United States. Dubbed the 'Helsinki Warning' the warning was passed along to airlines and various governments. The public however was kept largely in the dark.
Finding Those Responsible
In March of 1990, Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel said his country's former Communist regime supplied the Libyan government with 1,000 tons of the explosive Semtex. Semtex is what investigators believed brought down Pan Am 103.
The next year, The United States and Britain announced charges against two Libyan intelligence officers for the bombing. Authorities says it's likely aides to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were also involved. Libya refused to turn over the suspects.
In 1992, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding Libya turn over the suspects. That same year, a federal jury in Brooklyn awards $9 million to the family of a man killed in the bombing. The jury had found Pan Am guilty of "willful misconduct" in its airport security.
After international pressure to hand over the suspects failed, Libya proposed a trial at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. In 1995, The FBI announced a $4 million reward for the two intelligence officers, and plans a worldwide information blitz for information in the case.
In 1998, the United States and Britain announced plans to convene a Scottish court in the Netherlands. Libya accepted the proposal. On April 5, 1999, the two Libyan intelligence officers a turned over to Scottish authorities.
The suspects, Abdel Basset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah made their first court appearance on December 7, 1999. The trial begins five months later.
On January 31, 2001, 12 years after Pan AM 103 fell from the sky, Al-Megrahi is found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. His co-defendant, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, is found not guilty.
Libya eventually offered $2.7 billion to settle claims by the families of the Lockerbie victims. This past October, the families of the Americans killed received their final payments. Each family received roughly $10 million. As part of the deal, the U.S. agreed to give Libya immunity from further claims related to the bombing.
The payout has led to changes in the relationship between the United States and Libya. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited the country earlier this year. It was the first visit by a sitting Secretary of State more than half a century.
Some family members say the Bush Administration was too quick to normalize relations with Libya, who had been for years a state-sponsor of terrorism.
Even today, the legacy of what happened twenty years ago lives on. Al-Megrahi, his family claim he's a political prisoner, set up by the Libyan government. A small number of victims' families in Europe agree. They want him released from prison.
Al-Megrahi's case is working its way through the Scottish courts, but he may die before anything is decided. Doctors have diagnosed him with terminal cancer.
Remembering the Victims
This year, as they do every year, victims' families will gather at Syracuse University to remember their loved ones. Why Syracuse? Thirty-five students from the school were headed home from an overseas trip that fateful day in December. Family member will also meet at a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Cairn at Arlington National Cemetery
In all, the victims came from 21 countries. They spoke different languages and believed in different things. Some were students, others businessmen, many just people trying to get home for Christmas.
