21 December 1988 air tragedy. Pan Am Airlines flight 103 from London to New York exploded while flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. 259 passengers and crew were killed on the plane; 11 people on the ground were killed by debris from the crash.

British investigators found that the crash occurred as the result of a bomb exploding in the cargo hold of the jet. A U.S. Central Intelligence Agency investigation resulted in two Libyan intelligence agents being charged in a Scottish court with the attack. After long negotiations, Libya finally turned the two men over in 1999 to be tried in a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands. The trial is currently ongoing, over 12 years since the plane exploded.