The Truth about Lockerbie - MartinFrost.ws

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*** lThe Lockerbie bomb A tale of three atrocities Once I realised the Lockerbie bomb couldn't have been in a suitcase, I started wondering what shape it could be. I was also struck by something Jim Swire noticed quite early on – the precise time between Flight 103 taking off and the Lockerbie device exploding, which matched that of a known PFLP GC device. I soon realised it was a very different device indeed to the one described at Megrahi's trial. The bomb that the Iranian planted in AVE4041 PA was in fact an imitation of a PFLP GC device, which used a so-called ice-cube timer. PFLP GC bombs using ice-cube timers are triggered by changes in air pressure, as the aircraft climbs from the ground. Once the trigger is set, a charging circuit completes and detonates the bomb around 30 minutes later. In mid-1988, the obvious scapegoat for the Iranian and CIA plot was the PFLP GC so it made sense to mimic one of their bombs. *** Box out: The bomb in luggage container AVE4041 As the plane gained height, the drop in air pressure would cause the pressure transducer to complete an electronic timer circuit within the bomb. This caused a battery to begin to slowly leak charge into a capacitor. After around 30 minutes, the power stored in the capacitor reached a threshold and flash discharged into the bomb detonator, which then went off went off. This triggered the bomb. Notice that important aspect of this device is not when the 'timer' is set, but the fact that the timer is activated when the pressure is reduced during the aircraft's climb to cruising level, and aircraft on normal flights, which that of Pan Am 103 was until the fatal explosion, have predictable climb rates. So the bomb can stand inactive on the ground for as long as the bomber wants - the set timer starts from the moment when the plane reaches a certain height. [SEE APPENDIX] On the fateful day of the bombing, Flight 103 finally lifted off the runway at 18:25 GMT after being delayed from its scheduled departure time of 18:00 GMT. Once it was clear of Heathrow, the plane turned towards Scotland and began to rise through the cold winter air. Two minutes after take-off, when the plane rose to 6,000ft, the ice-cube timer trigger set. Flight 103's life expectancy was now measured in minutes. At 18:56 GMT, the aircraft reached its cruising altitude of 31,000 feet (9,450 m) as it approached the Scottish border. Two minutes later, at 18:58 GMT, Flight 103 contacted Shanwick Oceanic Control, the air traffic control responsible for international airspace over the north-east Atlantic. “Good Evening Scottish,” said Ray Wagner, Flight 103's co-pilot. Alan Topp, an officer at Oceanic Control, saw the flight approach and cross the corner of the Solway Firth on his secondary radar. Two minutes later he replied “Uh, this is Scottish. Ident, please”. Flight 103's Captain replied: “This is Clipper 103, requesting oceanic clearance.” Topp asked the pilot to send an identifying radio transmission.“Clipper 103, good evening. Uh, for identification, squawk 0357 with ident please.” Topp received the squawk and the Flight 103 changed its course, ready for its flight over the Atlantic. “Clipper 103, route direct, 59 North 10 West to Kennedy. Maintain flight level 310,” he said. Suddenly, the first radar return after 19:02:50 showed no return from the aircraft. Precisely like all successful PFLP GC style aircraft bombs, such as the bombing of the TW841 flight between Italy and Greece, the ice-cube bomb's detonator caused it to explode in the baggage container 32 minutes after it had been 18
A tale of three atrocities set 30 . It may just as well have been a real PFLP GC device in a cassette radio in a suitcase transferred to Pan Am 103 at Heathrow! But it wasn't. For the next few seconds, Topp remained unaware of the disaster that had befallen the doomed flight. Then he tried desperately to contact Flight 103's pilot, and asked a nearby KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight to do the same, but there was no reply. Then he called up his primary radar and saw the single radar return he expected replaced by four, which began to fan out. Topp became frantic: “I've got multiple returns. It's showing five returns! They're fanning out downwind. Clipper 103, this is Scottish? Come in! Clipper 103! I've lost the Clipper!” Around 30 seconds later, Topp would receive the first reports of an explosion on the ground. He now knew the flight's life had ended. lThe first explosion After the disaster, more than 1,000 police officers and soldiers spent months carrying out fingertip searches of the ground around Lockerbie – the crash site and trails of debris from the explosion - collecting more than 10,000 items. The UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) analysed the debris and compiled a report about the disaster. In my opinion, the pattern of explosion outlined in the AAIB report and described by air accident experts at Megrahi's trial provides compelling evidence for my theory. During the trial, AAIB investigator Peter Claydon reported that an improvised explosive device (IED) – a bomb not designed for conventional military use - 'punched' through the baggage container and side of the plane leaving a square hole 31 . The official explanation for Lockerbie is that a bomb was concealed in a suitcase. Yet a bomb in a suitcase would explode in all directions. In contrast, the hole in the side of the plane seemed to indicate a unidirectional explosion. This makes sense if a bomb was attached to the side of a luggage container, slightly above the bottom (see figure). Peter Claydon told the court the bomb created an 8-inch square hole in AVE4041 PA and a 20-inch square hole in the skin of the aircraft. This was, however, small compared to the size of the plane and experts were puzzled about how such a small explosion could have caused so much damage. 32 The ice-cube bomb, however, wasn't expected to cause much damage because it had to be reasonably small for the Iranian to sneak it into Heathrow under an overcoat and conceal it in a baggage container. Subsequently, it had to be small enough to be ignored during baggage loading. The official Lockerbie investigation claimed the IED weighed less than 0.5kg 33 , which led Peter Claydon to say during Megrahi's trial that it produced a 'relatively mild' explosion 3435 . This befuddled me for years – how could such a small device completely obliterate Flight 103? The plane's fuel tanks couldn't have contributed to the blast because they exploded on the ground at Lockerbie. I was not alone in my confusion. A team of academics from the Centre of Explosives 30 Air Accident Report, Trans World Airlines, Inc., Boeing 707-331B, N8724 in the Ionian Sea, September 8 1974, National Transportation Safety Board, Washington D.C., 20594, report number NTSB-AAR-75-7 31 See http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/evidence-to-be-rebuilt-in-court-1.234185 32 idem, ibid 33 As to size Thursday, 1 June, 2000, 16:31 GMT 17:31 UK , http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/772784.stm 34 http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache%3AZe3BOxOCC64J%3Awww.scotcourts.gov.uk%2Flibrary %2Flockerbie%2Fdocs%2Flockerbiejudgement.pdf+%22relatively+mild %22+explosion+lockerbie&hl=en&gl=uk In the High Court of Justice, case 1475/99 Opinion of the Court delivered by Lord Sutherland, page 5 35 http://gl-w.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html 19
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