PAN AM JET CRASHES IN SCOTLAND, KILLING AT LEAST 273

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2003
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 22, 1988
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
Dead Include 15 Villagers; On-Board Blast Suspected
from London to New York crashed
into a Scottish village last night.
apparently killing all M persons
aboard.
The Boeing 747 slammed into a
gasolene station and several homes
a Pan Am vice president, Jeff Ktien-
dler, told reporters in New York
last night. The plane had left Lou.
dads Heathrow Airport at 6.25
pm. local time (125 pm ISTJ,
and the last contact from the crew
was at 7:15 p.m, when the plane
was cruising at 31.000 feet, Krim
t lersaid. He added that itwas'pre-
cmely an awed" when A disap-
gars said in a telephone interview.
Krieger gave the time the plane
bit the gmmd as 722.. Britain's
Civil Aviation Authority said Scot-
tish air controllers had talked to the
crew minutes before the crash and
received no indication of any prob-
lem,
British aviation officials denied
reports that the 747 may have bit
soother plane. One British news
service report said the jet may have
broken into two before hitting the
ground.Bian Reed, a spokesman
for Britain's Scottish Office in Ed-
iaburgh, said his office had received
reports of wreckage landing in
Langholm,10 miles east of Locker-
bee.
Al we know is that all those in
the aircraft are dead," said David
Brooks, air vice marshal for the
Royal Air Fora in Scotland.
Pan Am's Kriendler said the air
line would not release a passenger
SWCaAS,A32,Cd,1
artltaftheEngfdtborder, ignites
afaebalthat raceup to 300feet.
into the sky.
A police o mm in the nearby
town of Dwmfiries reported that at
leap 15 villagers had been killed.
Local hospitals said 12 seriously
burned villagers had been rushed is
fm treatment.
There was an mr~ mdicr
tion of what cased the accident,
which took place m dear weather
less than an hones flight time from
Landon.
'There were no mayday signk,'
As rescue terns reached the
cask scene, about 275 aces north-
west of London, there were
madica-
bm of an explosion aboard the
plane. The jet's cabin door was
found about 10 miles from the test
of the cockpit, while an engine was
fond on a highway outside the vil-
lage. At least one witness said the
plane may have been on fire before
it hit the ground.
The place, Pan Am Flight 103,
"disappeared from radar contact at
7:15 p.m.," British Department of
Transport spokesman Mom Vertt?
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
 Approved For
nRitp96.00789R000600740002-3
1HE WASHINGTON POST
P -------
het En Route toNewYork
. From London le,
A car blazes in the stfeet. ASSOCIATED PRESS
following the crash of a Pan American Boeing 747,
THE WASFINCTM POST
2 -
MILES
SCOTLAND
IRELAND
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3,
(INGTON POST
`E1
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13,1989 E5
JACK ANDERSON and DALE' VAN ATIA
Terrorists sthe U.S. Is~Reluctant to Blame
ran is the most likely suspect behind the
"Gadhafi the bogeyman and to blame him.for the
Been shared with the Central Tnelligenc'Agency.
The British and. West Germans are leery of a
CIA bias that seeks to make'Libya's Moammar
as the tlprits Son1 . ut not all-of the
gave singled out r~ntan-direced terrorist groups.
2q deaths in Ioclte~> becotland . ; '
sharing what theyknow: "It's'hard.to.blame them,"
informant had included among the alleged hit squad
members several people who had sworn to kill
top priority: fur soui?ces Sad the CIA's prepared to
responsible. The flaw` in this approach is that it
encourages gadflies to come forward with what the
Reagan has.been obsessed with Gadhafi for eight
years and might like to have the final say. The last
directed by Iran bombed Flight 103. Reagan has
been humiliated by Iran and is not amdbu&,for a
he.said.,".Look at the Reagan administration's past'
_.:aL T -1'.,Fe.1 in+cllindrtl P u .
77,
hit squad and the 1986 bombing of aBerlindisco
West German police think'the Reagan
administration hyped-or manufactured-flimsy
evidence blaming Gadhafi for the disco bombing in
which one U.S. serviceman was killed., President
Reagan used the incident to justify a subsequent
bombing raid on Libyan sites, including Gadhafi's
Tripoli home.
In 1981, the CIA paid:tens of thousands of
the
mant who gave
t inf
,
.
or
dollars to a Middle Eas
anufactured false the new year for America" if the United States
H
h
e m
ear.
CIA what it wanted to
reports of a.Libyan hit squad out to assassinate doesn't deport Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran's late shah.
Reagan. The story unraveled when alert West Iranian government officials have denied any
European intelligence officers noted that the involvement. But to believe them is ludicrous.
intelligence services so wary of sharing
Europe and the Middle ;East nave pooh-pooped the.` -
claims of a shadowy pro-Iranian group that has
been trying to assert responsibility for the
bombing.
The group calls itself "The Guardians of the
Islamic Revolution" and claims it was motivated by
the downing of an Iranian airliner last July'by.a U .S
warship. The group, in a'call to London news
warned "there will be another present in.
services
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
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