Muammar Gaddafi Dead: Families of Pan Am Flight 103 Victims React to Libyan Dictator's Death
Families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie Scotland, due to a bomb planted by Libyan terrorists, are honoring the memories of their loved ones in light of the news of Muammar Gaddafi's death.
It was Dec. 21, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103, while flying en route to New York City from Heathrow Airport in London, exploded over Lockerbie, killing all 259 aboard.
Two days later, reports surfaced that on Dec. 5th, the U.S. Embassy in Finland received bomb threats against a Pan Am flight.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Investigations discovered that a former Communist regime supplied the Libyan government with a hard to detect explosive known as Semtex, which is believed to have been employed in the bombing.
In 1991, Abdel Basset Ali-Megrahi, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted by the U.S. and Scotland, as additional evidence pointed to higher-level aids of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, who headed up the investigation while as an Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in 2003, spoke of the impact the case had on him personally:
"The constables in charge of the Scottish end of the investigation had constructed a small wooden warehouse in which were stored the various effects of those who were on the plane when it broke apart in the skies…"
Mueller then went on to list the personal effects:
"A white sneaker, never again to be worn by the teenager; a Syracuse sweatshirt never again to be worn by the Syracuse student, and other such everyday pieces of clothing and personal belongings, these ordinary items brought home to me, and came to symbolize for me, the pain and the loss felt by those whose family, friends, or colleagues died that evening."
After exhaustive diplomatic wrangling, the two suspects were handed over to Scottish authorities in the Netherlands in 1999, and were formally charged in the bombing. Megrahi would later be convicted of the terrorist attack, while his co-defendant Fhimah would be found not guilty.
The families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 fought valiantly through political reticence and red tape, to ensure that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, which killed their loved ones, were brought to justice.
On Thursday the group issued a statement on its website which read:
"We will take a moment today to honor our family members: In their memory, we did not give up. We kept fighting for them and for some semblance of justice. Today, we take some satisfaction that justice can be done."
