Pan Am Flight 103 Timeline

The New York Times publishes a photo of an “Administrative Notice” from the State Department posted in the cafeteria of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow informing State Department employees of a “Threat to Civil Aviation” : The FAA informed State that “on December 5, 1988, an unidentified individual telephoned a diplomatic facility in Europe (it was Helsinki, Finland) and stated that sometime within the next two weeks there would be a bombing attempt against a Pan American aircraft flying from Frankfurt to the United States.” (The caller, speaking English with a strong Arab accent, actually stated that operatives of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, using a Finnish woman as an unwitting accomplice, would smuggle a bomb aboard a Pan Am flight from Frankfort to the US in December)…” the “reliability of the information cannot be assessed at this point, but… police …. Pan Am has also been notified)…”post leaves to the discretion of individual travelers any decisions on altering personal travel plans or changing to another American carrier. This does not absolve the traveler from flying an American carrier.” Though selected government officials were alerted, pilots flying Pan Am planes were never told of this threat, let alone any passengers. Investigators ultimately determined that the caller, who had warned of other bombings that had never taken place, was probably simply trying to punish a man who had “stolen” his girl friend. But a bomb was placed on a Pan Am flight traveling from Frankfort to the United States and it did explode 16 days after the phone call. This was the first- but unfortunately not the last -peculiar coincidence that was going to plague the investigation and make it very difficult to distinguish between reliable elements in the conspiracy that had brought down the plane from wild and self-serving theories and denials of the facts. And it revealed for the first time publicly, for everyone to see, that the policies of the FAA and the State Department withheld crucial information about serious security threats from pilots, crews and the vast majority of airline passengers.

John Cardinal O’Connor organizes a Day of Prayer on our behalf in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City, personally inviting all family members to attend. This was the largest gathering of family members. Paul Hudson (father of Melina), Bert Ammerman (brother of Thomas) and Richard Hartunian (brother of Lynn) stood on the steps of the Cathedral passing out fliers announcing "the preparation of a general newsletter by and for the victim family members." and Victoria Cummock, who lost John, her" husband, best friend and father of her three very young children" Midsummer Sound Companyhanded out an open letter announcing the formation of a support group and information network for the family members only, "since we all have very many questions and have gotten few answers… from Pan Am or any of the U.S. government agencies." Victoria had already been in contact with several congressmen and independent air safety consultants.

Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 is created. The idea for such an organization began with Paul Hudson, father of Melina Hudson a college student, returning from her term abroad. Family members who flew over to Lockerbie at Pan Am’s expense within days of the explosion, began meeting each other for the first time. The next opportunity for people to meet each other was at the Memorial Service held on January 18, in Syracuse University, for the 35 students who perished returning from their semester in London. Even though his daughter had not been a Syracuse student, Paul Hudson attended the memorial service and met with the parents afterwards, inspiring them to organize. After the Press Conference, a group met at the home of Wendy Giebler, who had lost Jay, her husband of nine months and subsequently at the Crow’s Nest in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. where the VPAF103 was formally organized. Though we initially banded together for emotional support, the need to learn the truth behind the bombing is what kept us going for long time. We established 4 goals early in 1989 and have worked at accomplishing them ever since: To Seek the Truth about the bombing, To Provide Emotional Support for ourselves and other terrorism victims, To improve Aviation Security and Safety, To Combat Terrorism.

On the 103rd day after the bombing, relatives and friends hold a demonstration in front of the White House. Some members of the Board are invited to meet with President Bush to request a congressional investigation into how the U.S. government handled terrorist warnings prior to Pan Am Flight 103. The rest of the afternoon, families and their friends lobby Congress. It is the first of innumerable lobbying efforts over the next 17 years.

The President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism issues its report describing the lapses in security by Pan Am and the FAA and decried the lack of “national will” to fight terrorism. The report contained over 60 recommendations forming the basis for the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990.

Two Libyan intelligence agents, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, are indicted by the U.S. and Scotland along with other unnamed co-conspirators. The evidence suggests involvement by high level aides to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. They were indicted in relation not only to the conspiracy to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988 but also the conspiracy to bomb UTA Flight #772 which exploded over Niger on September 19, 1989. Both planes were destroyed by a semtex bomb concealed in a Bombeat radio/taperecorder inside a suitcase, the bomb triggered by triggers supplied by the Swiss company, MEBO, to the Libyan government. Because of the thorough, dedicated work of hundreds of men and women, several critical pieces of evidence were retrieved from tons of debris: the blast damaged fragments of a copper colored Samsonite Silhoutte 4000 hardshell suitcase, the blast damaged fragment of an instruction manual for the Toshiba RT-SF16 stereo radio cassette recorder ( a model named, perhaps not coincidentally, Bombeat), the blast damaged fragment of a printed circuit board from a MEBO MST 13 timer, the blast damaged label from a “Yorkie” brand pair of trousers. A semtex bomb placed inside the recorder and triggered by the MEBO timer, had been wrapped in clothing, placed in the Samsonsite suitcase which ultimately ended up in baggage container AVE4041 where it exploded, tearing a hold in the skin of the airplane, knocking out all electric power, tearing the plane apart, sending it hurtling to earth. The “Yorkie” label led detectives to the clothing factory and then to a shop in Malta, where the shopkeeper recalled that a Libyan man had purchased a random assortment of clothing in mid December. The shopkeeper ultimately identified Abdel Basset Ali-al-Megrahi as that Libyan man. Fhimah was in charge of Air Libya at the airport, and was indicted because of a diary which he left in his desk when he and Megrahi returned to Tripoli on December 21, 1988. The diary notes that he is to pick up Air Malta tags and also that he is to pick up Megrahi in December , flying in from Tripoli.

The civil trial against Pan Am by the relatives of the victims begins in Brooklyn New York City, Judge Platt presiding. Legal team representing the Plaintiffs were led by Lee Kreindler of Kreindler and Kreindler.

Under the instigation of and leadership by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the U.S. and the U.K. propose to convene a Scottish court in the Netherlands in an effort to bring the two Libyan agents to trial. Libya accepts the U.S. and British plan two days later, on August 26, 1998.

Trial begins at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

Families meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Department of Justice and four Senators in Washington D.C. We were reassured that our Justice Department will continue to follow evidence wherever it leads; that our government will pressure Libya to fulfill the remaining requirements of the United Nations Security Council namely, to accept responsibility for the actions of its officials, to pay appropriate compensation to the families and to cooperate with the Justice Department in its work to learn all the facts in the conspiracy to bomb Pan Am Flight 103.

Decision of the five High Court Appeal judges at Kamp Van Zeist in the Netherlands. “ We have concluded that none of the grounds of (Al-Megrahi’s) appeal is well founded. The appeal will be accordingly refused. This brings the proceedings to an end.” Al Megrahi was flown to a Scottish prison to begin serving a minimum 20 year sentence.

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1506 voting 13-0 with two abstentions (The United States and France) to lift its sanctions against Libya. Libya pays the first $4 million installment to the families.

Family members return to the Hill. They are joined by lawmakers from New York, which lost 58 and New Jersey, which lost 38 people on Pan Am Flight 103. Senators Lautenberg, Menendez, Kennedy, Clinton, Lieberman, Schumer and Biden and Congressmen Ferguson and Andrews submit resolutions blocking U.S. diplomatic ties to Libya until it completes restitution to the families. Over 75 Representatives, Republicans and Democrats, sign the resolution.

Congress passes the U.S./Libya Claims Resolution Act, re-opening the final payment negotiation with Libya.

MacAskill’s announcement stated that he was not releasing Megrahi under the Prisoner Transfer Agreement between the UK and Libya, because Megrahi had been found guilty by the three judges in the trial at Camp Zeist, and the guilty verdict had been upheld a year later by five new judges. However, MacAskill went on to declare that he was releasing Megrahi on “Grounds of Compassion” because he “might die within three months from terminal prostate cancer,” and refused to consider transferring him elsewhere in Scotland because security would be too difficult. He based his decision on a report of several Libyan-paid physicians that Megrahi had three months to live. Pertinent parts of the medical report have not been made public. At the time MacAskill was holding a press conference, Megrahi was on his way home to a hero’s welcome in Saif Qadaffi’s private plane. The promise of “no celebratory activity” was “honored” by parades and demonstrations in Libya. The timing coincided with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the revolution that brought Gadhafi to power. FBI Director Robert Mueller, breaking a lifelong practice of not commenting on another prosecutor’s case, wrote a very strong protest to MacAskill calling the release a “miscarriage of justice.”

On the three-month anniversary of the day al Megrahi was supposed to succumb to prostate cancer, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) calls for the return of Megrahi to a Scottish jail.

As the 22nd anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 approaches, Megrahi remains alive a year and one month longer than he was supposed to survive.