11/14/08 - Tom Thurman, the former chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Bomb Data Center and head of the Explosive Unit, visited the University of Rhode Island last Friday. About 50 people attended his lecture, titled "The Bombing of Pan American Flight 103 on December 21, 1988."
A few audience members came to learn the truth behind the horrific 1988 catastrophe. One audience member worked in a nearby airport and had a general interest in cases worked on by the FBI.
"Prior to Sept. 11, this was the largest multi-national investigation," Thurman said.
Because of its three cockpit windows, the aircraft was easily identified as an early version of a 747. "At that time, it was an extremely stable airplane," Thurman said. "It was a great aircraft."
At 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 departed from London, England. At the time of its departure, 400,000 pounds of aviation fuel had been loaded into its fuel tank. The cargo fuels were also full, which "played directly into our ability to solve this heinous crime," Thurman said.
According to Thurman, later that evening, hurricane-force winds present at cruising altitudes forced the pilot to expend all available fuel to avoid them.
At 7:02:30 p.m., the pilot and copilot received orders to make an emergency landing. The employee at the land-based control tower waited for a response from the aircraft, but none was received.
Thurman said in an interview conducted after the attack, the person stationed at the tower control said that his blood ran cold and a word of utter disbelief, "no," escaped from his mouth as he looked at his radar screen. On the screen, he had seen 10 to 20 dots that indicated that Pan Am flight 103 had, quite literally, come apart in the air. It was later determined that the plane broke apart at an altitude of 31,000 feet.
"Until you forensically prove it, it's an accident," Thurman said.
Forensic teams were immediately formed after the explosion to establish the cause.
It was determined that all four engines were ripped from the plane before the wings hit the ground. The cockpit, which was composed of the heaviest metals, hit the ground first.
Everybody on the plane that night was killed, a total of 259 passengers. Two trails of debris were found; one in Lockerbie, the other in Sherwood Park, Scotland. A total of 845 square miles constituted the crime scene.
"I know of no crime scene, ever, being that large," Thurman said.
Thurman speculated crewmembers, passengers and the people in the cockpit were not killed or injured by the blast specifically. Their lives ended when they came in contact with the ground.
In such a situation, "instantaneously, the plane goes black, the temperature drops to 50 degrees below zero and the conscious mind goes blank," Thurman said. He said that under these particular conditions the minds of the humans would not be able to consciously comprehend what was happening, although their eyes may have remained open.
In Sherwood Park alone, 11 civilians were killed as a result of the plane coming into contact with the ground and further exploding. In total, 270 deaths resulted from the terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103.
Each wing box hit 100,000 pounds of aviation fuel, resulting in an enormous explosion. That evening, the wind speed at ground level was particularly strong, fueling an immense firestorm.
"Some of the houses that were not destroyed in the blast were totally decimated in the [resulting] firestorm," Thurman said. One of the pictures in Thurman's slideshow portrayed a decimated neighborhood that had been instantaneously torn apart.
For months after the attack, Scottish military personnel were instructed to sweep-search specific fields that were considered to be a part of the crime scene and to "pick up anything that doesn't grow from the ground," Thurman said. Collecting debris was a tedious and difficult task because the permafrost-ridden ground would suck up the evidence, freeze it, then eventually spit it back up.
On Christmas Eve, 1988, a unique blackened piece of debris was found. An English forensics team later determined that specific microscopic particles found in high explosives were present in the sample of the odd debris sample. The discovery of these particles proved that the contamination had, in fact, originated from a source of explosion.
"You make your own luck," Thurman said. "Luck just doesn't come to you; you've got to open that door and explore. On Christmas Day, that was our Christmas present."
A warehouse located within close proximity of one of the crime scene debris trails was used to reassemble all parts of the shattered plane. Through means of hard work, dedication and perseverance, the FBI and the international teams involved were able to determine the exact location of the bomb within a specific cargo container aboard the plane.
"Evidence survives," Thurman said.
Further evidence collected from the crime scenes provided essential information that led investigators straight to the origin of the bomb. On Dec. 21, 1988, a rogue bag containing the bomb had left AIR MALTA, in Malta Island, located North of Libya. From there, it was loaded onto Flight 103A in Frankfurt, Germany, where it was loaded onto a smaller plane and eventually made its way onto Pan Am 103.
The bag had flight tags but was not connected to any particular person. At the time, the company Pan Am did not have security measures as strict as those used today. As a result, the bag was x-rayed but not opened and searched. The bomb remained hidden from viewing on the x-ray screen because it had been carefully packaged into the luggage container it was hidden in.
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!