Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing

On December 21, 1988, Pan American World Airways Flight 103 from London to New York exploded 31,000 ft. above the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. The crash provoked one of the longest criminal investigations in Scottish history, and led to an eight-year diplomatic game of cat and mouse in which the United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya.

Just after 7 P.M. that December night, the Boeing 747 crash-landed onto the little Scottish town, destroying 21 houses in Lockerbie. The youngest person killed in the explosion was just two months old, while the oldest was 82 years. All 259 passengers, hailing from 21 nations, and 11 people on the ground were killed; 189 of those killed were American citizens.

The bombing took place four months after an Iranian Airbus was shot down by the American military cruiser U.S.S. Vincennes. Iranian government officials ...