Pan Am Flight 103

Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On December 21, 1988, the aircraft flying this route, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA and named Clipper Maid of the Seas, was destroyed by a bomb, and the remains landed in and around the town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland ( 55°5.7′N, 3°20.3′W).

An editorial in The Guardian of December 23, 1988 reported:

In the subsequent investigation of the crash, forensic experts determined that about 1lb (450g) of plastic explosive had been detonated in the airplane's forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. Winds of 100 knots (190 km/h) scattered victims and debris along an 81 mile (130 km) corridor over an area of 845 square miles (2189 km²).