At three minutes past seven on the evening of Wednesday 21 December 1988 a bomb exploded on board Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747 en route from London to New York. The aircraft broke up almost immediately, and wreckage came to earth over a wide area. The largest parts of the aircraft landed on the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 243 passengers and 16 crew on board Flight 103 were killed, as were 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie.

The Lockerbie Bombing or the Lockerbie Air Disaster remains the deadliest aviation incident, and the deadliest act of terrorism, ever to take place in the United Kingdom. With 189 Americans killed, it was also the deadliest act of terror against the United States prior to 9/11. Those killed included nationals of 21 different countries in five different continents, and the victims ranged in age from 2 months to 82 years old. Thirty-five of the passengers were students of Syracuse University returning home for Christmas after studying at the university’s London campus.