WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.879 Imagine stepping outside your front door just a few days 2 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:08.279 before Christmas. The weather is completely wild. You've got this strong, 3 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:14.039 biting westerly wind howling just whipping freezing mist and rain 4 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:16.239 across the hills of the Scottish Lowlands. 5 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:17.920 Yeah, miserable weather exactly. 6 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.879 And you are a local resident like Michael Gordon. You're 7 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:24.199 standing in your living room, maybe wrapping presence, when you 8 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:25.760 hear this low rumble. 9 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:27.359 And at first you probably just dismiss it right, like 10 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:28.719 it's just thunder. 11 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.399 Right, But it doesn't fade. It builds, The pitch rises 12 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:35.119 and gets louder and louder until it sounds less like 13 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:38.039 a winter storm and more like a military jet fighter 14 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:39.679 just screaming directly over. 15 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.240 Your roof, which is a terrifying auditory build up. I mean, 16 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:46.039 it literally shakes the very foundation of the houses. And then, 17 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:47.359 you know, then comes the visual. 18 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:49.880 You look out the window into this pitch black night 19 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:53.600 sky and you see dark shapes falling against the town lights, 20 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:57.240 black objects just plummeting downward. And then for high on 21 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:01.560 your right, a massive long black shape trailing bright orange 22 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:04.480 fire is hurtling straight toward the ground. Wow. When it 23 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:08.519 hits the explosion is so horrendous. It literally lists the 24 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:12.079 roof tiles off your house. The phone lines instantly go dead. 25 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.359 You run outside and the reality is just incomprehensible. The 26 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:18.079 street is a blaze. People's lawns are on fire, Entire 27 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:20.200 houses have simply vaporized. 28 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:22.760 It really looked like a scene pulled straight out of Hell. 29 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:26.079 But you know, amidst that chaotic, blazing wreckage, there were 30 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:31.120 these incredibly eerie, quiet moments of stillness, like what Well 31 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:35.920 investigators later found a pristine, completely unbought airline ticket lying 32 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:39.400 on the wet ground, totally untouched by the inferno raging 33 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.799 around it. It just read LHR. 34 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:46.760 To JFK London Heathrow to New York, John F. Kennedy Exactly. 35 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.359 That ticket belonged to a passenger on pan Am flight 36 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:52.159 one O three, the clipper Maid of the Seas. Welcome 37 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:54.920 today's deep dive. We are stepping directly into the shoes 38 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:58.640 of aviation accident investigators to untangle what became well the 39 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:01.280 largest crime scene in world it really was. We're going 40 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:03.519 to break down how a global team solves a mystery 41 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:07.000 scattered over two thousand square kilometers across Scotland. 42 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:09.599 And the stakes of this investigation. I mean, they really 43 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:12.479 cannot be overstated. This wasn't just a plane crash. It 44 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:16.479 became an unprecedented global forensic operation. Right we were talking 45 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.039 about thousands of personnel collaborating to sift through over six 46 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:25.039 million mangled aircraft parts, and they were ultimately searching for 47 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:29.319 a single piece of evidence that was quite literally smaller 48 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:30.599 than a thumbnail. 49 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:32.919 Which just blows my mind. So let's rewind just a 50 00:02:32.919 --> 00:02:35.719 bit to understand the sheer scale of what happened, because 51 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:39.159 right up until that terrifying moment over Lockerby on December 52 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:41.719 twenty first, nineteen eighty eight, flight one oh three was 53 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:43.159 completely routine. 54 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:43.680 Oh totally normal. 55 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:46.400 It was an eighteen year old Boeing seven forty seven 56 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:49.719 carrying two hundred and fifty nine people, just cruising peacefully 57 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.240 at thirty one thousand feet. The cockpit crew had just 58 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:55.120 checked in with Scottish air traffic Control. Good evening, Scottish 59 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:56.319 Clipper one O three. 60 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.840 We are level at three ten, just a standard relaxed update. 61 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:03.039 The controllers acknowledged it nothing out of the ordinary at all. 62 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:06.080 Yet seconds later that blip simply vanished from the air 63 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:10.159 traffic controller's screen. It didn't descend, It just ceased to. 64 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:12.400 Exist, And the physics of what hit the ground next 65 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:14.439 are almost hard to fathom. 66 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:15.280 Tell me about it. 67 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:19.759 The kinetic energy involved is just staggering. What fell directly 68 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.560 onto the town of Lockerby wasn't the entire plane. It 69 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:24.879 was the main wing structure and the center section of 70 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:25.439 the aircraft. 71 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:27.280 And that's where the fuel is right exactly. 72 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.360 Since this plan was embarking on a transatlantic flight, that 73 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:33.919 center section was loaded down with about ninety thousand kilograms 74 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.560 of aviation fuel. Oh my god, that is one hundred 75 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:40.879 and fifty tons of highly flammable fuel plummeting almost perfectly 76 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:44.319 vertically at five hundred knots, which is nearly six hundred 77 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:44.960 miles an hour. 78 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:49.120 So it is essentially a massive fuel heavy missiles striking 79 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:50.280 a residential neighborhood. 80 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:54.479 Yeah, the impact was catastrophic. The blast displays fifteen hundred 81 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:57.879 tons of rock and earth, gouging a thirty foot deep 82 00:03:57.960 --> 00:03:59.240 crater into the edge of the town. 83 00:03:59.400 --> 00:03:59.840 Wow. 84 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:03.840 Background impact alone killed eleven local residents instantly, on top 85 00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:05.560 of the two hundred and fifty en people on board 86 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:06.159 the autcraft. 87 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:09.000 The aftermath is just sheer chaos. You have the British 88 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:13.039 Air Accident's Investigation Branch the AAIB arriving within hours, and 89 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:15.199 it is not just a logistical nightmare, it is a 90 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:20.199 profound physical and emotional toll. You have over sixteen hundred 91 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:26.920 police and military personnel trudging through freezing Scottish bogs. They're 92 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:30.800 dealing with the heavy, sickening smell of aviation fuel and 93 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:33.519 the trauma of what they are uncovering. 94 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:35.959 And when helicopters get up at dawn to map it out, 95 00:04:36.279 --> 00:04:39.160 they realize the wreckage isn't in one spot. It forms 96 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:42.879 this massive cone shape radiating out from Lockerby, getting wider 97 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:44.680 and wider the further away you go. 98 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.600 Right. So when you have a debris field larger than 99 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:50.839 the entire city of London, where do investigators even begin 100 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:51.879 to look for answers? 101 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:56.639 Well, it's overwhelmingly daunting. But the foundational strategy and any 102 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.399 aviation disaster of this scale is to work back from 103 00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:02.600 the front of the aircraft, so they had to locate 104 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:06.079 the cockpit. Search teams eventually found it about four kilometers 105 00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:10.360 east of Lockerby, and its condition was incredibly revealing because. 106 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.160 It wasn't crushed like you'd expect from a terrifying nose 107 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:14.639 dive into the earth exactly. 108 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.399 The nose was cracked, but the cockpit itself was cleanly 109 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.959 severed from the cabin. It looked as if a giant 110 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.680 blade had just chopped it off. The windshields were completely intact, 111 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:27.839 but the crucial detail was inside. The autopilot was still 112 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:31.399 switched on and the emergency oxygen masks were still stowed 113 00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:32.800 in their overhead compartments. 114 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:36.240 Oh wow. Wait, So if the pilots had lost control, 115 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:39.439 or if the plane was slowly descending, their first move 116 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:41.920 would be to turn off the autopilot to fly manually, 117 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:43.959 and those masks would have automatically dropped. 118 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:46.680 Spot on the fact that the cockpit was frozen in 119 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.199 a state of routine cruising flight told investigators one definitive thing. 120 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:54.439 This aircraft did not crash in a traditional sense. It 121 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:59.040 suffered a catastrophic, instantaneous midair breakup. It came apart in 122 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:01.680 the sky before nayone even knew something was wrong. 123 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:05.240 Which immediately sets up this massive debate among investigators and 124 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:07.800 the public. Was it a structural failure? I mean, our 125 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:10.560 sources point out this was the fifteenth Boeing seven forty 126 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:11.399 seven ever built. 127 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:12.360 Yeah, an older bird. 128 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:14.160 It was an older model, eighteen years old and at 129 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:17.800 logs seventy five thousand flying hours. Maybe metal fatigue finally 130 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:20.319 just gave way at thirty one thousand feet yeah, or 131 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:22.680 was it sabotage? Because it had only been three and 132 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:25.319 a half years since the devastating Air India bombing over 133 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:26.399 the Atlantic. 134 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:29.600 Right and navigating the incredible noise of the media and 135 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.600 public speculation during this first few days was a major 136 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:36.759 challenge for the aaib I can imagine multiple militant groups 137 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:40.720 were immediately calling news agencies to claim responsibility. The media 138 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:45.560 was obsessing over the passenger manifest desperately looking for a motive, and. 139 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:50.480 The media is screaming sabotage because of two passengers. In particular, 140 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.519 you have Charles McKee, who is a major US Defense 141 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:57.879 Department official actively working on Middle East hostage releases yep, 142 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:01.040 and you have a twenty year old student named Kaleg Jaffar. 143 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:04.759 People are thoroughly convinced this is a targeted, high level 144 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:05.800 political assassination. 145 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:08.959 Those theories were incredibly compelling to the press, creating a 146 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:13.879 huge frenzy of rumors, but for investigators they were loud distractions. 147 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:15.720 Right, You have to follow the evidence exactly. 148 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:18.720 Law enforcement looked into every single passenger to see if 149 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.639 they could have been targeted or unknowingly carrying a device. 150 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.800 Every one of those background checks hit a dead end. 151 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:27.319 The passenger list wasn't giving them the answer. 152 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:29.279 So if the people don't give you the answer, you 153 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:31.639 have to look at the metal. Which brings us to 154 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:36.240 Christmas Eve, three days after the disaster. The search takes 155 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:41.240 investigators out into a miserable, foggy farmers field south of Lockerby. 156 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:42.639 Yeah, it was awful out there. 157 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:44.399 You can't see ten feet in front of you. But 158 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:47.079 they are trudging through the mud because they have to 159 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:49.680 find the very first pieces that broke off the plane, 160 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:51.199 the start of the debris trail. 161 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:54.480 And this is where Tom Thurman from the FBI and 162 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.879 the AAIB investigators have their massive breakthrough. 163 00:07:57.959 --> 00:07:58.720 What did they find. 164 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.560 They find a piece of mead about twenty inches long. 165 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.920 It is part of a cargo compartment skid rail. That's 166 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:08.079 the track that helps guide luggage containers into place deep 167 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:10.399 in the belly of the plane. Okay, but it's not 168 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:13.560 just torn metal. It is uniquely bent and it is 169 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.480 covered in these tiny, very specific craters. 170 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:18.120 Let me push back on this a little bit because 171 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:21.600 it sounds impossible. You were looking for one uniquely bent 172 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:25.399 piece of aluminum inside a two thousand square kilometer scrap yard. 173 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:27.000 It sounds like a needle in a hayfield. 174 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:30.959 Yeah, exactly. How do tiny craters on a luggage rail 175 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:35.039 definitively prove this was a bomb rather than just the 176 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:37.679 metal tearing violently as the plane ripped apart at six 177 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:38.519 hundred miles an hour. 178 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:42.000 Well, it comes down to the microscopic physics of high explosives. 179 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:47.240 Tearing metal, even during violent structural failure, leave specific sheer 180 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:50.000 marks that metallurgists can easily identify. 181 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:52.200 Okay, so a mechanical tear looks different. 182 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.919 Completely different. High explosives behave entirely differently. When a high 183 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.879 explosive detonates, it creates incredibly hot, rapidly expand gases that 184 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:02.679 move faster than the speed of sound. 185 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:04.879 Oh so it's not just a physical push. 186 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:08.960 No, the blast actually vaporizes parts of the metal on contact. 187 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:12.200 The analogy the investigators use is brilliant. Think of a 188 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:13.080 lit blowtorch. 189 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:14.679 Okay, but blowtorch. If you take a. 190 00:09:14.679 --> 00:09:17.200 Blowtorch and just barely tap the tip of the blue 191 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:19.759 flame against a piece of thin metal. It doesn't bend 192 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:23.720 the metal, it instantly melts a tiny microscopic pit into it. 193 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:24.240 Ah. 194 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:26.279 I see those craters on the skid rail were the 195 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:30.200 chemical signature of hot combustion gases violently pitting the metal. 196 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:34.279 It is thermal and chemical damage, not mechanical. And four 197 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:38.039 days later the forensic lab confirmed that theory by finding 198 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:42.440 physical traces of plastic explosive on those exact fragments. So 199 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:45.360 it was no longer a tragedy caused by an aging airplane. 200 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.200 It was officially a merger investigation. 201 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:50.440 Which changes everything about how they proceed. 202 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:54.440 Right, But okay, they found microscopic traces of explosives. A 203 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.519 seven forty seven is one hundred and fifty tons of 204 00:09:56.559 --> 00:10:00.600 metal scattered over a massive geographic area. How on earth 205 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:03.279 do you pinpoint where a tiny bomb was hidden. 206 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:06.759 You have to literally rebuild the airplane, rebuild it. Yeah. 207 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:10.320 They gathered up the wreckage and transported it to Farnborough, England. 208 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.960 They secured a massive five acre shed. They mapped out 209 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:16.840 a grid on the floor using tape, treating the center 210 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:19.039 line of the aircraft like the equator on a map, 211 00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:22.679 and use the plane's internal frame numbers to organize the pieces. 212 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.320 That is wild. Think of it less like a jigsaw 213 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:28.879 puzzle and more like trying to reconstruct a demolished skyscraper. 214 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:32.840 By analyzing the microscopic stress fractures on individual steel. 215 00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:34.200 Ibeams, that's a great way to put it. 216 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:36.000 Just to find exactly where the dynamite was planted. 217 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:38.600 And by laying it all out, they were able to 218 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:42.799 zero in on one specific area, frame seven hundred. 219 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:45.559 Frame seven hundred stood out immediately because it didn't look 220 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:47.440 like the rest of the plane. The metal wasn't just 221 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:51.320 torn from aerodynamic forces, it was blackened. It was completely 222 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:52.519 covered in thick soot. 223 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:55.360 Yeah, the fractures were jagged and a rapid Frame seven 224 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:56.720 hundred was ground zero. 225 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:58.200 Okay, so what was right there? 226 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.399 Well, that frame was located just outside the forward luggage compartment. 227 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.120 This narrowed the entire investigation down to the cargo hold. 228 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:09.200 An investigator named Peter Clayton had the monumental task of 229 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:12.360 reassembling the luggage containers, all of them. Yeah, there were 230 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:16.000 about twenty of these identical containers on board. He eventually 231 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:19.039 isolated two specific containers that were sitting right against frame 232 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:20.000 seven hundred. 233 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:20.679 Pick getting closer. 234 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.159 One was made of fiberglass, which just suffered collateral damage. 235 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:27.679 The other was a metal container identified as AVE four 236 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:31.039 zero forty one. That was the container holding the bomb. 237 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:33.720 But this is where the science gets truly baffling for me. 238 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:37.639 The forensics show that the bomb was incredibly small. We 239 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:40.440 are talking less than half a kilo of plastic explosives. 240 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:40.879 VERI s. 241 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:44.480 I just don't understand how a bomb that small takes 242 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:47.279 down one hundred and fifty ton aircraft. It seems like 243 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:49.279 a pin prick against the side of a massive jet. 244 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:52.639 Well, what's fascinating here is that the initial explosion of 245 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:56.200 that half kilo bomb did not destroy PanAm flight one 246 00:11:56.240 --> 00:11:59.559 oh three week. Really, the direct blast only punched a 247 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.639 relative small hole about one and a half by five 248 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:06.039 meters in the side of the fuselage. If that had 249 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:08.480 been the end of it, the plane might have actually survived. 250 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:11.080 So why did the plane completely disintegrate? 251 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:13.879 It comes down to a terrifying phenomenon known as the 252 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:18.759 echo chamber effect. When the bomb detonated, it released massive shockwaves. 253 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:20.879 But those shockwaves didn't just vent out the hole in 254 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:23.759 the side of the plane. They violently channeled through the 255 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:26.120 internal spaces of the aircraft. 256 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:27.320 Like sound bouncing around a canyon. 257 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:30.639 Exactly, the inside of the jet acted like an acoustic 258 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.960 echo chamber. The shockwaves bounced off the curved walls of 259 00:12:34.039 --> 00:12:37.279 the fuselage, amplifying and gathering immense pressure. 260 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:37.960 Oh my god. 261 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.440 They traveled rapidly through the cabin until they hit the 262 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:45.080 structural weak points, specifically the roof. The pressure became so 263 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.879 intense that it literally popped the rivets holding the ceiling 264 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.559 of the aircraft together. It blew the roof out from 265 00:12:51.559 --> 00:12:52.080 the inside. 266 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:54.919 That is absolutely chilling. The bomb didn't break the plane. 267 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:58.679 It turned the plane's own internal architecture into a weapon 268 00:12:58.679 --> 00:12:59.440 against itself. 269 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:03.159 Precisely, and once that structural integrity was compromised at five 270 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.679 hundred miles per hour, aerodynamic forces just ripped the plane 271 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:07.279 to shreds. 272 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:10.240 So they know the container, they know how the blast worked. 273 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:13.519 Now they need to find the bomb itself. The narrative 274 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:17.039 tightens down from a two thousand square kilometer debris field 275 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:21.240 to a single metal container, and then to a microscopic 276 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:22.679 fold in that metal It's amazing. 277 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:27.159 While meticulously examining the reconstructed metal container, an investigator gently 278 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:29.960 flexed a piece of the blast damaged aluminum, and a 279 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.919 tiny piece of debris just. 280 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:33.320 Fell out, just fell right out. 281 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.919 Yeah, it was a fragmented piece of a printed circuit 282 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:37.039 board trapped. 283 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:39.840 In the metal fold. So the forensics lab takes it, 284 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.679 analyzes the circuitry, and they identify it. It belongs to 285 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:48.159 a Toshiba cassette player, specifically a model called the bomb 286 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:50.399 Beat RTSF. 287 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:54.320 Sixteen, a painfully ironic name, seriously, but that specific brand 288 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:57.200 and model of radio triggered a massive alarm for the 289 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:00.799 international intelligence community. It connected directly to an event that 290 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:02.360 had happened just two months. 291 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:05.159 Prior the German false lead. This is like something out 292 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:08.639 of a spy thriller. Just two months before Lockerby, German 293 00:14:08.679 --> 00:14:13.000 police had busted a cell of the PFLPGC. 294 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:15.200 Right, and for context, this was a highly organized Palestinian 295 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:17.600 militant group known for sophisticated attacks. 296 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:21.159 And during that raid police found a Toshiba radio wired 297 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:22.960 with explosives in the trunk of a car. 298 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:26.399 So the immediate assumption across the intelligence community was that 299 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:30.440 this cell was responsible. Investigators hypothesized that a bomb they 300 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.480 had built slipped through airport security in Frankfurt, Germany, where 301 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.519 many of the PanAm passengers had initially started their journey. 302 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:39.399 It seems like a slam dunk. You have the same 303 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:42.360 terrorist group and the exact same concealment method. 304 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:45.519 It does look perfect on paper, but this is where 305 00:14:45.559 --> 00:14:49.799 the rigorous, impartial nature of the forensic investigation becomes crucial. 306 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.840 When bomb experts compared the Lockerby evidence to the confiscated 307 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:56.799 German bombs, the physical signatures. 308 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:59.480 Didn't match because bomb makers have distinct habits like a fingerprint. 309 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:03.879 The German bombs used a barometric timer that means they 310 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:07.399 were triggered by changes in atmospheric pressure, ensuring the plane 311 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.639 is high in the air when it detonates. Okay, but 312 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.399 the Lockerbie bomb did not use a barometric trigger. Furthermore, 313 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:17.399 the German bomb used a single speaker Toshiba radio. The 314 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:20.399 Lockerbie bomb was housed in a two speaker model, so it. 315 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.080 Is a different trigger mechanism and a different radio model. 316 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:26.559 It wasn't the German cell. A totally different suspect was 317 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:29.799 at large and investigators had to follow the physical trail 318 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:32.679 of crumbs left by the luggage itself. 319 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:34.919 And those crumbs led them to the suitcase that held 320 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:38.679 the radio. Forensics identified it from tiny melted fragments as 321 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:40.679 a hard sighted samsonite four thousand. 322 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.320 Okay, So they have the suitcase? What was in it? 323 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:46.399 Mixed in with the bomb residue inside that suitcase were 324 00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:50.840 fragments of clothing. Investigators traced the labels on these charred clothes, 325 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:54.320 discovering they were manufactured and sold exclusively on the tiny 326 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:55.879 Mediterranean island of Malta. 327 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.399 So investigators traveled to Malta, tracked down the specific shop 328 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:03.919 owner and miraculously, he remembers the person who bought those clothes. 329 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:07.639 It's incredible luck, and he noted one specific vital detail 330 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:10.639 the buyer had a Libyan accent. It was a huge 331 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:14.120 turning point. But it also raises a massive operational question. 332 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:14.960 Yeah it does. 333 00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:17.919 If the bomb was built and packed in Malta, how 334 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:20.519 did it get onto a pan Am flight leaving from London. 335 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:23.960 This uncovers a shocking failure by the airline. 336 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:27.120 Itself, It really does. Baggage records showed that an unaccompanied 337 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:30.720 bag designated as Bag b A eight forty nine was 338 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:34.679 routed from Malta to Frankfurt and then transferred to London Heathrow, 339 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:38.039 where it was loaded into that specific container AVE four 340 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:38.919 Z or forty one. 341 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:41.000 But the person who checked that bag never boarded the 342 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:41.679 pan Am flight. 343 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:45.440 Right, And this is where the tragedy compounds with severe 344 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:50.000 corporate negligence. Following the Air India bombing three years earlier, 345 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:54.519 a strict international aviation rule had been established called passenger 346 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:55.919 baggage reconciliation. 347 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:57.360 What does that mean? Exactly? 348 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:00.759 It mandated that airlines physically match every rechecked bag with 349 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:04.359 a boarded passenger. If the passenger isn't physically on the plane, 350 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:06.039 their bag comes off right. 351 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:08.160 Think about the last time you sat on a runway 352 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:11.000 annoyed that your flight was delayed because the crew had 353 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:13.599 to remove the check bag of a passenger who missed 354 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:19.160 their connection. That frustrating weight that directly traces back to 355 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:22.640 this exact fatal oversight at Heathrow in nineteen eighty eight. 356 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:24.799 PanAm just well, they weren't doing it. 357 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.240 No, they had abandoned the procedure at Heathrow. It was 358 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:30.559 deemed too time consuming or complex for connecting flights. 359 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:31.079 Wow. 360 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:35.400 This wilful failure to adhere to basic security protocols allowed 361 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:37.559 a terrorist to check a bomb in Malta and walk 362 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.920 away knowing it would travel seamlessly onto the target aircraft, and. 363 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:45.519 This revelation ultimately resulted in PanAm being found guilty of wilfulnessconduct, 364 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:49.839 directly leading to the airline's total bankruptcy. The sheer preventable 365 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:54.240 nature of it is infuriating, but investigators still needed the 366 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:57.599 final piece of the puzzle. They needed the specific mechanism 367 00:17:57.640 --> 00:17:59.799 that triggered the bomb to tie it to a suspect. 368 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:00.920 It took a long time. 369 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:03.839 Over a year after the crash. While sifting through the 370 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:07.200 recovered clothing from Malta, forensics find another piece of a 371 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.839 circuit board embedded in the fabric. This one is incredibly small, 372 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:11.640 half the size of. 373 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:14.960 Your thumbnail, and this tiny fragment is sent back to 374 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:18.799 Washington to Tom Thurman at the FBI. He believes it 375 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.519 is part of the timer, but it doesn't match anything 376 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:24.480 in the FBI's extensive explosive archives. 377 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:25.200 So what does he do? 378 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:29.799 He spends months exhaustively searching, hitting dead end after dead 379 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:32.000 end until he decides to go to the CIA. 380 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:32.720 Good call. 381 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:36.240 He brings the microscopic photo of this thumbnail size fragment 382 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:38.960 to the CIA and they start pulling their own international 383 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:43.960 intelligence files. Thurman describes this moment of getting absolute cold shills. 384 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:45.000 Oh I bet he is. 385 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.240 Looking at a photograph of a timer that had been 386 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:50.839 seized from two Libyan operatives in Africa a few years earlier. 387 00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:56.000 The circuit track in the CIA's photo perfectly identically matched 388 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.599 the tiny fragment found in the fields of Scotland. 389 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.759 Incredible. So it wasn't a Barra man. It was a 390 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:04.880 highly professional long delay electronic timer exactly. And once they 391 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:07.880 had the complete device from the CIA archives they could 392 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.440 trace its origins. They attracted to a Swiss electronics company 393 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:15.799 called Mebo. The owners of Mibo admitted they had manufactured 394 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:19.640 twenty of these specific custom timers and delivered them directly 395 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:20.640 to the Libyan government. 396 00:19:20.759 --> 00:19:23.319 And if we connect this to the broader geopolitical picture, 397 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:26.319 the puzzle pieces snapped violently into place. 398 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:27.079 They really do. 399 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:29.240 You have the Libyan accent from the shop in Malta, 400 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:31.880 you have the timer source directly to the Libyan government, 401 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:35.880