Lockerbie disaster Pan Am flight 103 remains lie forgotten in a Lincolnshire scrapyard

Thirty years on from the devastating Lockerbie bombing disaster, the wreckage of Pan Am flight 103 lies in a scrapyard in Lincolnshire.

The regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit (via London and New York) was destroyed by a bomb, killing all on board (Photo: SWNS)

Images and footage of the remains (which include the nose section of the Boeing 747 aeroplane) have been released - an upsetting sight for anyone who remembers the incident which took place on 21 December 1988.

270 deaths

The regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit (via London and New York) was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew, as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.

The regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit (via London and New York) was destroyed by a bomb, killing all on board (Photo: SWNS)

A separate large part of the fuselage from the jumbo jet was reassembled to aid with the consequent investigation. This was used as evidence after the bombing, and moved from Hampshire to a secure location in Dumfries in 2013.

The wing section of the plane hit number 13 Sherwood Crescent in Lockerbie at more than 500 mph and exploded, creating a 47 metre long crater.

Several other houses and their foundations were destroyed, and 21 others were damaged so badly they had to be demolished. The house at 1 Sherwood Crescent was the only one on the street that was neither destroyed by the impact nor gutted by fire that followed.

Lockerbie people ‘opened their homes and hearts’

Much of the wreckage has remained at a scrapyard in Lincolnshire since the accident (Photo: SWNS)

Of the 270 total people killed as a result of the Lockerbie bombing, 190 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. Many relatives of the passengers killed on Pan Am flight 103 travelled from the US after the disaster and were welcomed with open arms by Lockerbie locals.

On the 10th anniversary of the bombing (in 1998), the BBC's Scotland correspondent, Andrew Cassell, reported that the townspeople had "opened their homes and hearts" to the relatives, bearing their own losses "stoically and with enormous dignity", and that the bonds forged then continue to this day.