The 1988 Lockerbie 747 Bombing Hoax - 7 Coded

Video Transcript:

December 21, 1988. In a few sure violent moments, 270 people died. 11 of the victims were killed on the ground in Lockerby when debris from Pan Am 103 rained down on their streets and homes. The aircraft, luggage and bodies were scattered over a wide area. People from 21 countries filled these coffins. 189 of them were American. The investigation that started at this massive crime scene led investigators to two suspects, Libyan men, Jill Bassett, Ali Al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fema. 44 of the victims began their journey in Frankfurt. At London's Heathrow Airport, they changed to the 747. Flight 103 with 243 passengers took off for New York at 25 past 6 last night. Shortly after 7, 31,000 feet over southern Scotland, it disappeared from radar. Minutes later, the wreckage was falling into fields between Lockerby and Langhom, 13 miles away. At Tundergaarth mains, three miles from Lockerby, the cockpit section crashed into a hillside. But the worst destruction was in the town itself. Close by, a row of houses in Sherwood Crescent took the full force of a section of fuselage, which gouged a 30 foot crater where the homes had stood. Michael Burke has spent the day in Lockerby, assessing the full impact of Britain's worst air disaster. Day broke slowly over Lockerby, over its shadowed ruins. The cockpit of Panams made of the seas nose down in the soft earth. Over her dead passengers, brought in on stretches from miles around. Over the helicopters who came for survivors, left with the dead. From them, you could see what happens when a plane falls from 30,000 feet. The huge crater scarred into the town's southern suburb by the fuselage of the plane, hitting the streets like a ballistic missile. The aircraft came out of the sky trailing flames, scattering wreckage, fuel and passengers. Today, it remains lie in bits in a 10 mile radius around the town. Last night, people in Lockerby heard a roar like an express train and then they say it seemed to rain fire. The tons of fuel on board the plane ignited into a 300 foot fireball. It reduced whole houses to just two rows of bricks. It was impossible then in the dark and smoke to work out who had died and who had survived. Creators were ablaze like small volcanoes in the streets. As far as I know, I've lost my brother-in-law, my system-law, and their host is just a 30-foot crater where their host was. I can't even train the host. It's grown like this is what is left of Sherwood Pressant until 19 minutes past seven last night, one of the most ordinary streets in Britain. The one has never seen or ever thought to see anything like it and they don't dig anyone else has either. I went to the other site but where the, obviously a lot of the petrol contained in the wing exploded. I saw what I now know to be part of the aircraft passing the house and it then landed on Sherwood Pressant and there was a huge fireball up into the air of 200-300 meters of fire and debris in the whole sky turned orange. I couldn't get any more than I said with 20 or 30 yards in the smoke just drove me back. A tremendous shudder on the ground was out on the earthquake and then we saw sparks and then there's an enormous smaller flame going up about 200-300 feet into the air. Seven o'clock of the head was on mighty bang and it all skylight. I was looking out in the back kitchen which looked so under the E7 floor and it was the sky light up, had this explosion, realised it was a plane coming down so we just get down in the floor and see the fire storm and look it out and went round about the other houses, a lot of elderly people stay in the other just to stay out and be out. It was this old mighty bang, my son and I were in the house so I said get down and the whole sky lit up and I realised it was a plane I could, but the debris falling everywhere and the whole roof was going to cave in and this at the time but looked out the back window and all I could see was fires starting up right over the whole countryside with the blaze and of course we just went out and started getting the people out of the houses around the house, a lot of elderly people don't even place it. Everybody evacuated and all in earth sections evacuated and they're all whole people but the houses, my house is completely destroyed now and a lot of the houses were badly damaged. It looked like a scene out of hell this whole road was a blaze. When I was sitting with my aunt, I think like an enormous mushroom fireball with past the window and all I could think of was getting her out and throwing her down on the ground because I know that that's the safest place to be. So it was a roller-thunder, I mean the house started to shake and it just out and I was in there, the engine coming down and the seat went about 50 yards from my house and it just made it eat me yesterday, I do believe. What did it look like when it came down? It just, it just, it was just here like a blaze ball from a flaming forest. The retired policeman fearing a mid-air collision at the end of the day. There was one member of the crew in Air Sioux-Dess lying face down beside it. We turned her over to see if there was any signs of life but other than an exhalation of air somewhere along she was obviously very dead. I did take a clamber up into the cockpit and you find where it'd come across and it wasn't disappointed in my freedom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It was then that the size of the tragedy began to sink in. Consultant surgeon, Mr. Smith, signed then briefed his staff on what he knew. There have been no survivors reported from the crash aircraft and we're waiting for Dr. Hill, who is the on-site medical officer, to give us an official stand-down. He's not prepared to do so because they still have several helicopters flying around in the area bringing in casualties to the academy and other locations. But so far as I can make out these casualties are corpses. I knew all three children. In fact, just a couple days before they'd been going around the neighbours delivering Christmas cards. This man was found guilty of murdering 270 people. In late 2008, McGraw, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He still said he was innocent and began fighting a second appeal. But he dropped that action in August in 2009 to focus on two other options. He applied for a transfer to a Libyan prison and he asked for a compassionate release. On August 20th, 2009, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny McCaskell announced McGraw his transfer application was rejected. But he would be freed on compassionate grounds because doctors estimated he had only three months to live. He is going to die. That same day, McGraw he boarded a plane for Libya. And home to cheering crowds. In the days following, he was seen looking weak and unwell. One year later, the Libyan government says he is still alive, but very sick. But both the residents of Lokavi and the world would soon learn that this was not the result of some accident. It was an act of terror. Sometimes, you hear a number attached to an anniversary and it's hard to believe that much time is actually passed. Like today, 25 years since Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lokavi, Scotland.