Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Investigation - Search For Clues

Search For Clues

On December 28, 1988, just a week after the crash, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch announced that they had found traces of high explosives and that there was evidence that Pan Am 103 had been brought down by an improvised explosive device (IED). Over a thousand police officers and soldiers carried out fingertip searches of the crash site that lasted for months, retrieving more than 10,000 items from the fields and forests of southern Scotland. The searchers were divided into groups of eight or ten, with the instruction: "If it isn't growing and it isn't a rock, pick it up." They were asked to look out particularly for items which might be charred and which might therefore have been close to an explosion.

British military helicopters flew over the crash site, pointing out large pieces of wreckage to the search parties. Private helicopters, equipped with thermographic cameras, were drafted in to survey the heavily wooded areas surrounding Lockerbie. Within hours of the crash, photographs of the area taken by a French satellite were delivered to the investigators. High-resolution photographs from spy satellites were also provided by the United States Department of Defense and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Every item picked up was tagged, placed in a clear plastic bag, labelled and taken to the gymnasium of a local school, where everything was X-rayed and checked for explosive residue with a gas chromatograph, after which the information was entered into the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System.