International hunt begins for plane bomber

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 8

International hunt begins for plane bomber

NZPA-Reuter

London

An international hunt has begun to uncover the bomber who destroyed the Pan Am airliner over Scotland last week after official confirmation that an explosive device blew it out of the sky.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (F. 8.1. said it was stepping up help to British authorities investigating the December 21 crash which killed up to 270 people. The United States Government offered a SUSSOO,OOO ($NZ792,300) reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the bombers.

British police said its anti-terrorist squad and the F. 8.1. would take part in a worldwide criminal investigation after the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (A.A.1.8.) said it had conclusive evidence that a bomb made of plastic explosives blew up the jumbo jet. “The explosive’s residues recovered from the debris have been positively identified and are consistent with the use of a high-performance plas-

tic explosive,” the A.A.1.8. said.

Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in a fireball on the Scottish town of Lockerbie an hour after it left London for New York with 259 people, including many United States citizens and servicemen, on board. Eleven Lockerbie people were also believed to have been killed.

The “Financial Times” yesterday reported that American investigators suspect a faulty timing device caused the jet to crash prematurely over Scotland and not over the ocean as the attackers probably intended. The report, which could not be immediately confirmed, said evidence would have been almost impossible to recover if the plane had crashed into water.

The A.A.1.8.’s finding

raised the question of possible United States retaliation against the bombers.

It also revived controversy over whether American authorities should have made public a telephoned warning on December 5 to the United States Embassy in Helsinki that a Pan Am flight originating in Frankfurt would be attacked. Flight 103 began in Frankfurt, but passengers and their luggage were transferred to the 747 at London for the journey to New York. Investigators said the bomb could have been planted in either Frankfurt or London.

The A.A.1.8., a division of the Ministry of Transport, reached the preliminary conclusion that the explosion took place at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9500 m soon after the plane crossed the Scottish

border. It said it still had to determine the exact nature of the explosive device and where it had been hidden.

Plastic explosive can be moulded inside luggage and anti-terrorism experts say it is very hard to detect. Captain John Guntrip of Britain’s Air Pilots Guild said he estimated between 9kg and 13kg of explosives had been used. A United States State Department spokeswoman said there had been three claims of responsibility for the bombing so far — one by a pro-Iranian group calling itself the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, and two others which she declined to specify. Iran denied any involvement in the crash. The “New York Times”

said a consensus was emerging among American intelligence officials that the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution were not to blame.

Speculation about a bomb has centred on Middle-Eastern groups which might attempt to sabotage recent peace moves by the Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, Yasser Arafat. Britain’s “Daily Mail” reported yesterday that American investigators were seeking a MiddleEast man called Abu Ibrahim and a member of the Abu Nidal group, Khadar Samir Mohammad, in connection with the bombing.

The “Daily Telegraph” said that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command was among the groups suspected.