The Bombing of Pan Am 103

The Bombing of Pan Am 103

DOCUDRAMA

Based on the tragic events on December 21, 1988, surrounding the detonation by terrorists of a bomb hidden in checked luggage aboard Pam Am Flight103, this 2025 docudrama presents the story outstandingly. The flight, a Boeing 747 widebody jumbo jet, was on the final leg of a journey that originated in Malta, stopped at Frankfurt, and was at 31,000 feet, traveling from London Heathrow to New York. A bomb with a timer was secreted in a radio cassette recorder in a suitcase in a cargo hold. Thirty-eight minutes after takeoff from Heathrow, the bomb exploded, blowing the airplane into multiple pieces and fragments. It killed all 259 persons on board, ranging in age from two months to 80. 190 were American citizens. The bodies of 17 persons were never found.

The explosion occurred over Lockerbie,  a small town in southern Scotland.   Immediately, recovery and evidence collection commenced. Townspeople were an immense help. Governmental agencies in the United States and in Scotland had jurisdiction to investigate, including the FBI. Within the FBI in Washington, DC,  Supervisory Special Agent (later SAC)  Richard “Dick” Marquise, a counterterrorism expert; Supervisory Special Agent Tom Thurman, an FBI Laboratory forensics expert and later head of the FBI’s Bomb Data Center; and Victim Assistance expert and later Assistant Director Kathryn Thurman,  all worked for years with Scottish authorities to help conclude the investigation and trial.

The grounds in and around Lockerbie were exhaustively searched for any and all evidence. Every item was carefully gathered, bagged, and labeled. One small identifiable piece of a circuit board proved to be instrumental.