PAN Am Flight 103 blew up in the sky 31,000ft over Lockerbie in Scotland just 38 minutes after taking off.
The attack shocked the world and prompted an investigation that has stretched over decades.
When was the Lockerbie bombing disaster?
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded less than half an hour after the jet departed Heathrow Airport in London, heading to New York.
The attack destroyed the jet, which was carrying citizens of 21 countries.
Just after 7pm local time (2pm ET) a large bomb exploded as the plane crossed over the border between England and Scotland.
Are there illegal baby names? Surprising monikers that are BANNED in other countries, from Sarah to Thomas
The plane turned into 300 tons of wreckage, with most of the debris landing in the town of Lockerbie.
Investigators said the bomb was in a Samsonite suitcase which was taken on board via a feeder flight from the Mediterranean island nation of Malta.
The impact caused a crater more than 150 feet deep and was strong enough to be measured as a seismic event, the FBI reported.
Debris from the crash was scattered over 845 square miles.
Did anyone survive the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing?
All 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed along with 11 residents on the ground.
Among the victims were 190 Americans – including 35 students from Syracuse University in upstate New York who were flying home after a semester abroad.
Adding to the horror, the bodies of the passengers were left strewn around the town and its surrounding countryside.
To this day, the bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack ever carried out on British soil.
What did investigators find?
Afterwards, US and British investigators found fragments of a circuit board and a timer.
This confirmed a bomb — not a mechanical failure — caused the explosion.
All about Rachel Nickell who was murdered in front of her son Alex Hanscombe
It was later found that the bomb was made out of Semtex plastic explosives which were concealed in a Toshiba cassette recorder.
This was then hidden in a Samsonite suitcase which was then slipped an aboard an Air Malta flight headed from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany.
The unaccompanied bag is then believed to have been transferred to a Pan Am flight to London and then to Flight 103.
Thirty eight minutes into the flight the bomb detonated inside the cargo area of the Boeing 747 while it was flying at an altitude of 31,000 feet.
The explosion punched a 20inch hole in the fuselage but because of the difference of outside and inside pressure the plane began to break up.
Large sections of the plane then fell on Lockerbie, a small town with a population of about 4,000.
Who carried out the Lockerbie bombing?
Following a three-year investigation by local police and the FBI, two Libyans were issued with arrest warrants for murder.
In 1999 Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader handed over the men for trial and eventually, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was jailed for life in 2001 after being convicted of 270 counts of murder.
However, the Scottish government released him back to his homeland on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He died in Tripoli three years later in 2012, protesting his innocence.
The family of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi have lodged a new bid to appeal against his conviction, five years after his death.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission announced on May 3 that it had accepted the family's application.
The commission said it would conduct a full review of his conviction for Britain's worst terrorist atrocity.
In September allegations surfaced The Palestinian terrorist - code-named Abu Elias - allegedly planted the explosives on Pan Am flight 103 under the orders of the Iranian government.
On December 17 2020, it was announced that the U.S. would unseal charges against another suspect in the 1988 airline bombing.
A Libyan intelligence officer identified as Abu Agila Mohammad Masud is in custody in Libya and will be extradited to the U.S to stand trial, the Wall Street Journal has said.