09/20/2013 Angela Pecsi I. Introduction: A. Attn: Getter: The Explosion of Pan Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland.

The longestrunning aviation investigation in history. B. Preview: A Pan Am transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport that was destroyed by a bomb on Wednesday, December 21, 1988, killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew members and an additional 11 people on the ground. C. THESIS STATEMENT: Pan Am Flight 103 crash, on the Scottish town of Lockerbie on 1988 resulted in the longestrunning investigation in the aviation history involving law enforcement agencies from all over the world. MAIN POINTS: I. A bomb planted by the terrorist Al Megrahi and his alleged accomplice Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, caused an explosion that brought the plane down turning Lockerbie in the largest crime scene in the world. II. Two hundred and seventy people were killed. III. The investigation has been running over the last 20 years and caused major international incidents at the time, given the fact that Libya didnt take any responsibility for the attacks at the beginning, taking them 4 years to finally admit they were responsible. (Transition: Tobegin with) II. Body: A. Testimony: On 21st December, 1988, just 38 min. after takeoff, Pan-Am flight 103 from London to New York crashed into the town of Lockerbie, Scotland killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew members and additional 11 people on the ground. 189 were American citizens and 43 were British citizens. With 189 Americans killed, the bombing was the deadliest act of terror against the U.S. prior to September 11, 2001. B. Investigation: After the Pan-Am 747 crashed, investigators realized that a specific suitcase in the planes luggage compartment exploded what made them aware of the fact that could be a terrorist attack so they decided to recreate every piece of the wreckage in a warehouse. For the Lockerbie investigation was necessary to involve local police, Scotland Yard, FBI and other agencies around the world becoming the largest crime scene in history.

Is policy that when a plane crashes in the UK it comes under the jurisdiction of The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is responsible for the investigation of civil aircraft accidents within the UK. An AAIB team arrived on the site the same night of the crash and an investigation begun. The wreckage of the crash was scattered over 2,000 square kilometers and AAIB investigators tried to piece the plane back together collecting over 4 million pieces of wreckage. Early analysis of the wreckage showed signs of an explosion in the front left luggage hold of the plane, indicating that it was a bomb that had caused the explosion. Weeks into the investigation and after running various tests on all the evidence, traces of the chemicals associated with Semtex explosions, were found. And the criminal investigation began. After 15,000 interviews and 180,000 pieces of evidence, it became clear it was a bomb made out of the plastic explosive Semtex and activated by a timer. The bomb was hidden in a radio cassette player inside a suitcase, but still they had to figure out who put the bomb and how the bomb got in the plane. A man walking his dog in a forest about 80 miles from Lockerbie found a T-shirt with pieces of a timer in it. This gave the final clue to investigators and finally they were able to trace these objects back to the terrorists Al Megrahi and his alleged accomplice Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, both alleged members of Libyas intelligence services. In 1991, after a joint investigation by the FBI, British authorities and local police, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted for murder. They were accused of planting the bomb in an audio cassette player while the plane was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Libya refused to hand over the suspects to the United States which caused the UN to impose more sanctions against Libya and the dictator Muammar Gaddafi. III. Conclusion: A. Summary: In 1999, most sanctions against Libya were lifted by the UN on the condition that Gaddafi would turn over the two terrorist to be tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law. In 2001 Al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison while Fhimah was acquitted in one of the most famous trials in modern history. Even today there is speculation about who was really behind this terrorist attack. There are questions about the validity of some evidence, suspicions of witnesses like Tony Gauci, an eyewitness for the prosecution who testified Al Megrahi was the person who bought the clothes from his shop. After the trial he said he had been offered $2 million reward from the United States to give evidence, raising significant questions of how legitimate this evidence could be. In 2003, Libya finally accepted responsibility for the bombing and sanctions were lifted after Libya agreed to pay each victims family about $10 millions but in 2004 Libyas prime minister said they did this because it was the price of peace and Libya had acted only to get rid of the sanctions, statement that angered the victims families.

B. Closing Statement: 25 years have now passed since this tragedy occurred, devastating a community and destroying hundreds of families around the world and still there are so many questions unanswered due to the complexity of the investigation and the political maneuvers involved that perhaps we will never learn the whole truth behind this attack but, one thing is certain, Lockerbie will always be remembered as one of the worst tragedies of the twentieth century and the lessons learned about airport security will never be forgotten. References - Dan OHair, Hannah Rubenstein and Rob Stewart, A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking, fourth edition (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2004), 108. http://natgeotv.com/uk/air-crash-investigation/lockerbie http://history1900s.about.com/ http://www.history.com/search?q=pan+am+flight&x=28&y=2