Published on THURSDAY, December 22, 1988
© 1988 The Arizona Republic

Investigators recovered the black box flight recorders today from the wreckage of a Pan American jet that blew apart ''with all the hallmarks of a bomb blast'' and crashed into a Scottish village, killing all 259 people aboard.

Diplomatic personnel in Europe had been warned Dec. 13 of a bomb threat against Pan American flights to the United States from Frankfurt, where Flight 103 originated Wednesday with a different plane, officials said, and investigators are focusing on the threats.

Passengers and luggage were transferred to the 747 at London's Heathrow Airport.

An anonymous caller claiming to represent an Islamic terrorist group said the plane was bombed in retaliation for the U.S. downing of an Iranian jetliner, but the claim could not be immediately verified.

At least 22 people died on the ground, most of them in cars hit by wreckage, Desmond Park, deputy chief executive of the area's local council, told the Dumfriesshire newspapers group.

The black boxes were taken to a Royal Air Force research facility outside London where authorities hoped to learn why Flight 103 exploded without warning and plunged ''like liquid fire'' into two rows of houses in Lockerbie in the worst air disaster in British history.

The wreckage of the Boeing 747 bound for New York with Christmas travelers scattered bodies and wreckage over the countryside and ravaged the village of Lockerbie.

The plane smashed into the ground, destroying 40 houses, triggering an explosion at a gas station and engulfing cars in flames.

The death toll on the plane rose to 259 today when it was discovered that another flight attendant was on board, said Pamela Hanlon, a Pan Am spokeswoman in New York. The victims included U.S. servicemen, 38 students from Syracuse University and an Asso-ciated Press executive and five of his family members.

Neither Scottish Secretary Malcom Rifkind, the chief British official at the site, nor U.S. Ambassador Charles Price would speculate on the possibility of sabotage, but both the International Air Transport Association and the British Airline Pilots Association said that was the most likely explanation.

Transport Minister Paul Channon told the House of Commons in London that radar operators saw the plane's radar return echo disappear from their screens and ''then split into several secondary returns.''

David Kyd, an official of the International Air Transport Association, said the disaster bore ''all the hallmarks of a bomb blast on board.''

The doomed flight originated in Frankfurt aboard a different aircraft.

In Frankfurt, the airport security chief said officials stepped up security at Pan Am after receiving threats against the carrier earlier this month.

An anonymous male caller to The Associated Press in London claimed responsibility for the disaster and said it was in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iran Air Airbus by the Navy cruiser Vincennes in July. The Navy said the plane carrying 290 people over the Persian Gulf had been mistaken for an Iranian fighter. At the time, some Islamic extremists vowed revenge, but later Iranian officials said they understood the attack was a mistake.

''We the guardians of the Islamic revolution are undertaking this heroic execution in revenge of blowing the Iran air plane by America a few months ago and keeping the shah's family in America. We are very proud,'' the caller said, then hung up quickly.

The group also claimed responsibility for a July 18, 1987, car bombing in London that wounded Amir Hussein Amir-Parviz, chairman of National Movement for Iranian resistance and a former Iranian cabinet minister under the Shah.

Iranian Prime Minister Hussein Musavi ''categorically denied any Iranian involvement'' in the crash. The denial came in a report by the official Islamic Republic New Agency, monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Transport Secretary Paul Channon told the House of Commons that searchers had recovered both the airplane's flight recorders, the vital electronic devices which monitor all flight data and conversation by the pilots.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, visited Lockerbie and talked to rescuers.

''It's clear that the accident happened in the air because parts of the wreckage are strewn over such a wide area,'' said Rifkind, who toured the crash site with Price.

The ambassador agreed that the way the plane had split into several sections ''would indicate a midair explosion.''

Asked on NBC-TV's Today show about the reported bomb threats, Price said, ''No, we did not have any specific information such as that in London.''

When he was asked how many Americans were on board, he said he ''understood that there were some 49 servicemen'' on the jet.

Also on the jet was John Mulroy, director of international communications for The Associated Press. Mulroy, 59, died along with five family members.

Wednesday's crash, the worst in British history, occurred 54 minutes after takeoff from London's Heathrow Airport and followed an apparently routine climb to a cruising altitude of 31,000 feet, airline officials and traffic controllers said. The only cause ruled out was a collision with another plane. Freddie Yetman, technical secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association, said only sabotage or structural failure could have destroyed the airplane at that height, and: ''It seems to me that the possibility of structural failure is almost too remote to be considered.''

Pan Am spokesman Jeffrey Kriendler said Wednesday night in New York that the possibility of an explosion was ''only speculation.''

''We have no indication there were any problems,'' Kriendler said. ''There was no Mayday (distress) signal.''

Police Superintendent Angus Kennedy told a news conference today that the bodies of 150 passengers, including three children, had been recovered and were taken to a makeshift morgue in the town hall.

Around the town, singed pillows, life jackets and fragments of clothing lay scattered in gardens. Chunks of metal, some as small as coins and two feet in diameter, had sliced through roofs and shattered windows in homes and cars.

The wreckage was strewn over a 10-mile area, and it appeared the Boeing 747's nose fell to earth before the main part of the jet struck Lockerbie.

A witnesses said one house struck by falling debris ''completely disappeared -- there is just no trace of it at all.''

The plane's 243 passengers, many of them carrying Christmas packages, included three children, 38 undergraduates studying abroad on a Syracuse University program and the U.N. commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson of Sweden. The plane had a seating capacity of 412.