After 32 Years, New Charges Were Filed in the Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing

Could new technology have helped the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation move quicker?

About 32 years ago, a Pan Am jet was bombed over Scotland and killed 270 people, of which 190 were Americans and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie. A true tragedy for the families of those who were victims and a threat to the country. It’s been about 3 decades since the investigation has been going and the FBI and Scottish authorities continue to piece the puzzle together. In 2001, a Lybian intelligence officer, Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, was found guilty on 270 counts of murder in the case and was sent to prison in Lybia for his involvement in the attack. In 1991, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were charged by the British and American governments in the case. The court acquitted Fhimah and al-Megrahi was convicted to life in prison in 2001. However, he was later released in 2009 due to how fatal the cancer was. Getting to those responsible for the bombing was no easy task. It took the FBI years of investigating, pursuing leads and conducting hundreds of interviews in over 16 countries to get the evidence needed.
Steven M. D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office stated “The men and women of the FBI have worked tenaciously for 32 years to investigate this horrific terrorist attack…with a dedicated focus on bringing justice to the 270 victims and their families.”

Is there a tool that could have helped speed things up? EyeDetect®, which launched in 2014, would help interview the Libyan intelligence officer who was involved in the case by using a high-resolution infrared camera to track changes in his pupil size and differences in the way he reads statements. An infrared camera would track eye movement, blinking and pupil dilation while the test is being administered and prove within 30 minutes whether the subject was lying, which in turn would help clarify who were involved with him or not. And the best thing is that Eyedetect is highly accurate seeing that it’s scientifically validated at 86-90% accuracy.

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Photo by /Ross Parmly