US arrests suspected bomb-maker in 1988 bombing: NPR

A policeman walks past the nose of Pan Am Flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

Martin Cleaver/AP

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Martin Cleaver/AP

A policeman walks past the nose of Pan Am Flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

Martin Cleaver/AP

US authorities have apprehended a Libyan suspected of building the bomb that destroyed an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, including 190 Americans.

“The United States has arrested the alleged Pan Am Flight 103 bomb maker, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement to NPR.

Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service confirmed that the families of those killed in the bombing had also been notified of the arrest.

“Scottish prosecutors and police, together with the UK government and their US colleagues, will continue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing to justice those who acted with Al Megrahi,” the office said in a statement.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded into pieces over Lockerbie, Scotland after a bomb was placed in the plane’s cargo area. The bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history and the second deadliest for Americans after 9/11, 2001. The plane had taken off from London and was heading for John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. .

According to federal officials, passengers and crew from 21 different countries were killed in the attack. Of the 190 Americans who died, 35 were students at Syracuse University in upstate New York returning home for the holidays after a semester of study abroad.

The attack launched a decades-long international manhunt for bombmakers. In 2020, US authorities made a breakthrough in the case after Libyan authorities apprehended Mas’ud, a former Libyan intelligence agent, and questioned him about his involvement in the attack.

In 2020, the Justice Department charged Mas’ud with destroying an aircraft resulting in death and destroying a vehicle with an explosive resulting in death.

The department announced that it will appear for the first time in US District Court for the District of Columbia.