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Pan Am 103 Condolences Collection
An inventory of the collection at the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives at Syracuse University
Summary |
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| Creator: | Syracuse University. |
| Title: | Pan Am 103 Condolences Collection |
| Dates: | 1988-1990 |
| Size: | 6.25 linear feet |
| Abstract: | Condolences sent to Syracuse University following the deaths of 35 study abroad students in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: |
Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Ave., Suite 600 Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center/pan-am-103 |
Historical Note
At 6:25 pm on December 21, 1988, Pan Am's Clipper Maid of the Seas departed Heathrow Airport in London for New York City's JFK Airport. One half hour later at 7:02 pm London time, as the Boeing 747 leveled off at 31,000 feet just north of the England-Scotland border, an explosion blew a basketball-sized hole in the fuselage. The plane broke apart and plummeted to earth. All 259 passengers of Flight 103 and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie, Scotland were killed. Among those killed aboard Pan Am Flight 103 were 35 students returning home from a semester of study abroad through Syracuse University. Before long the world would know that it was not a mechanical failure or foul weather that brought down the plane, but a terrorist bomb: a Semtex plastic explosive planted in a Toshiba radio-cassette recorder packed inside a Samsonite suitcase stowed in the plane's forward cargo hold. Only one man would ever be convicted for committing this terrorist act. Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi and fellow Libyan Intelligence agent Lamin Khalifah Fhimah were indicted by the United States in 1991, formally charged by the Scottish authorities in 1999 and tried by an international court at Camp Zeist, Netherlands beginning in 2000. Al-Megrahi's conviction was handed down in 2001. Fhimah was found not guilty. Al-Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds in 2009, after a terminal cancer diagnosis gave him three months to live. He died three years later. The investigation of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 remains open.
Scope and Content Note
The Pan Am 103 Condolences Collection contains Condolence letters and Remembrances in prayer that were sent to Syracuse University in the aftermath of the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that claimed the lives of 270 individuals, including 35 Syracuse University study abroad students. This collection also contains the Thank you letters Syracuse University sent in response to those messages.
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
Please note that the collection is housed off-site, and advance notice is required to allow time to have the materials brought to the Reading Room on campus.
Use Restrictions
Written permission must be obtained from the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Related Material
The Pan Am Flight 103 Archives contains additional materials and information related to the Pan Am 103 Condolences Collection. Related collections include:
Selected Search Terms
Names
Subjects
Types of material
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Pan Am 103 Condolences Collection,
Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives
Syracuse University Libraries
Acquisition Information
Transfer from the Office of Undergraduate Studies in 1996.
Processing Information
Materials were placed in acid free folders and acid free boxes.
Finding Aid Information
Created by: Cara A. Howe
Date: 2012
Revision history: Mar 2015 - Errors corrected; stylistic changes (VSOM);
Jul 2016 - Inventory updated (VSOM);
Jun 2025 - Collection title and inventory updated (VSOM)
Arrangement
Materials are arranged chronologically, with the exception of condolence letters from schools, colleges, and universities, which are arranged alphabetically by institution.
Inventory
| Remembrances in prayer | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | General December 1988-January 1989, | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | General undated | ||||||||||
| Thank you letters | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | General January-March 1989, undated (2 folders) | ||||||||||