vendredi 18 avril 2014

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.

The plane was traveling 31,000 feet when the bomb exploded. Investigations revealed that Libyan terrorists were responsible. The conclusions followed the gathering of thousands of pieces and information about the plane. It had to be reassembled in a warehouse to establish major facts. This was billed to be the most dangerous attacks in history and attracted a lot of attention.

It took three years for prosecutors to piece together the evidence presented before concluding that Libyans were involved. The two persons implicated with planning were Abdel Baset and Khalifa Al-Amin. After the cases were presented before the judges, the verdict exonerated Khalifa while Baset was found guilty and sentenced to serve life in prison. The judges also ruled that Libya should take responsibility for the act and pay 2.7 billion dollars.

UK Air Accident Investigation Branch took over investigations as it was its responsibility and mandate considering that the crash happened in UK air space. 4 million pieces of debris were collected from an area covering 2000 square kilometers. The team had to use computer documentation to piece together the debris.

The idea of a bomb led investigators to term the crush as a criminal act. This is where they were led to believe that luggage was used to plant it at the cargo section. It was suspected that the luggage was boarded in Frankfurt. The remains had traces of RDX and PETN chemicals which cause Semtex explosion. The team of investigators included local police, Scotland Yard and FBI.

America had never witnessed such magnitude of murder of her citizens. 189 of the 270 people who died on board were Americans. The only other act that saw such a level of deaths was the 9/11 terrorist attack that happened years later. The court proceedings saw the presentation of 180,000 pieces of evidence, 3,500 of which were photos. 15,000 people assisted the prosecution with testimonies. A total of 20 countries were involved in the investigations. It was concluded that Libya should take responsibility by paying 2.7 billion dollars.

The investigations and trial broke the record for the most expensive exercise. A total of 60 million dollars was spent with 230 people presenting their evidence in person. Court transcripts topped 10,000 pages with the entire trial taking a record 89 days. There was a claim that the trials took a political angle which dimmed any hopes of finding the truth. Libya was claimed to be a scapegoat while the real perpetrators were Iranians with the aid of Palestinians.

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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