1. PAN AM FLIGHT 103
The largest terrorist attack every perpetrated on British soil, the Pan Am bombing represents the worst single loss of British life at the hands of an extremist group.
On the 21st of December 1988, Pan-American airlines flight 103 left Heathrow at 6:25 PM, turning North to cross the Atlantic on the way to New York’s JFK airport.
At around 7 o’clock a single explosion from an onboard device punched a hole in the side of the aircraft, causing it to begin a meteoric nosedive. En route to the Earth jet fuel contained in the fuselage ignited, disintegrating the plane into pieces which slammed into the ground around Lockerbie in Southern Scotland.
The entirety of the passengers and crew lost their lives, 259 dying with no survivors. On top of this 11 people were killed on the ground by the impact of pieces of the aircraft’s fuselage.
Controversy continuously surrounded the Pan Am bombing, with a formal inquiry pointing to involvement of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi, as a response to perceived aggression against his state during the 1980’s. However the controversy was somewhat muted when Gadaffi finally admitted responsibility for the 1988 attack in 2003, with the perpetrators acting under his orders, yet the letter admitting responsibility did not admit guilt, and was apparently utterly without remorse for the massive loss of life.
