Lockerbie Bombing

Date: December 21, 1988 • Location: Lockerbie, United Kingdom

A bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 detonated over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to Detroit, with stopovers in London and New York City. Shortly after 19:00 GMT on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 Clipper Maid of the Seas operating the transatlantic leg of the flight was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The attack killed 270 people: all 243 passengers, the 16 crew members, and 11 residents of Lockerbie who were killed by fire and falling debris. The Lockerbie Bombing is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom and one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in European history.