The Investigation
The crime scene in Lockerbie and the surrounding area encompassed 845 square miles of rugged terrain along the Scottish border. The wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 in the town of Lockerbie itself destroyed 15 homes and severely damaged several other structures. Under the oversight of Chief Constable John Boyd of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, the disaster was immediately treated as a criminal act. The search area was divided into six initial zones, and Boyd identified three phases of the investigation: recover all victims by midnight on December 24; collect all aircraft wreckage in two to three weeks; and prepare for a protracted inquiry. Although phases one and two extended beyond Boyd’s estimates, this early portion of the investigation remains a model for similar scenarios.
By December 1989, investigators had logged nearly 1.5 million vehicle miles, taken over 35,000 photographs, and recovered roughly 16,000 items of property. Over 80 percent of the plane itself was recovered and reassembled at Air Accidents Investigation Branch facilities in Farnborough, England.
Personal Effects
Among the items retrieved were thousands of personal effects belonging to the passengers, nearly all of which were eventually returned to next of kin. Each item was logged in the investigation’s Home Office Large Enquiry System (HOLMES) and x-rayed for secondary explosive devices. The contamination sustained by many of the items — from weather and aviation fuel among other causes — meant many, notably textiles, were initially identified as unreturnable. Upon learning this, residents of Lockerbie took on the task of cleaning and returning the items to the families themselves. The Lockardians who performed this selfless act have come to be known as the Washerwomen of Lockerbie.
This item was recovered from the Lockerbie crash site and returned to the family of Pan Am 103 victim William David Giebler, Jr.
This item was recovered from the Lockerbie crash site and returned to the family of Pan Am 103 victim Sarah Philipps.
This item was recovered from the Lockerbie crash site and returned to the family of Pan Am 103 victim Michael Bernstein.
The majority of personal effects belonging to passengers aboard Pan Am Flight 103 — approximately 85% — was returned to next of kin through a system of identification coordinated with the Consulate General of the United States. The remaining items — primarily jewelry, watches, cameras, and gifts — were photographed and compiled into a catalogue and descriptive index. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation coordinated viewings of the catalogue for victims’ families in an effort to identify and return as many remaining items from the Lockerbie Incident Control Center as possible.
The Trial at Kamp van Zeist
Evidence gathered by the United States and Scottish joint investigative team eventually led to the indictment of two Libyan nationals. Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted in 1991 and tried at an international court at Kamp van Zeist in the Netherlands in 2000-2001. A detailed timeline of events leading up to and following this trial is available on the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives website.
Prepared by the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit at the University of Glasgow School of Law and The Law Society of Scotland, the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Handbook provided useful information regarding the legal dimensions of the criminal trial at Kamp van Zeist and Scottish criminal law procedures. The handbook was among several resources provided to victims’ families and other interested parties throughout the trial. Another was the Lockerbie Trial Families Project with Syracuse University’s College of Law, which provided families with daily updates about the trial and resources for understanding trial procedures of this special format.