A cold night in December saw Pan Am flight 103 heading from Frankfurt to Detroit – via London and New York. Many of those onboard were heading home to spend Christmas with their families. The flightpath took the plane over the small Dumfries-shire town of Lockerbie. The aircraft operating the transatlantic leg of the route was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew. Large sections of the aircraft crashed onto a residential street in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 11 people on the ground. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.
17. Soldiers continue their grim job searching for jet disaster debris.
Soldiers continue their grim job searching for jet disaster debris. Photo: Donald MacLeod
18. In this file photo taken on December 22, 1988 Local resident Robert Love stands by one of the four engines of the illfated Pan Am 747 Jumbo jet, 22 December 1988, that exploded and crashed 21 December on the route to New-York, with 259 passengers on board. All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed as well as 11 Lockerbie residents. In 2003, Libya admitted responsibility for the deaths of the 270 victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing. - A posthumous legal challenge to overturn the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmet Al-Megrahi is due to begin in Scotland on November 24, 2020. Scotland's most senior judge, Lord Justice General Colin Sutherland, and four other judges at the country's highest criminal court will hear the case via video link. (Photo by ROY LETKEY / AFP) (Photo by ROY LETKEY/AFP via Getty Images)
(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 22, 1988 Local resident Robert Love stands by one of the four engines of the illfated Pan Am 747 Jumbo jet, 22 December 1988, that exploded and crashed 21 December on the route to New-York, with 259 passengers on board. All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed as well as 11 Lockerbie residents. In 2003, Libya admitted responsibility for the deaths of the 270 victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing. - A posthumous legal challenge to overturn the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmet Al-Megrahi is due to begin in Scotland on November 24, 2020. Scotland's most senior judge, Lord Justice General Colin Sutherland, and four other judges at the country's highest criminal court will hear the case via video link. (Photo by ROY LETKEY / AFP) (Photo by ROY LETKEY/AFP via Getty Images) Photo: ROY LETKEY