Originally published: Thursday, December 22, 1988

In Britain's worst air disaster, about 300 people were killed last night when a Pan American Boeing 747 flying from London, Heathrow, to New York crashed and exploded on the small town of Lockerbie in Scotland.

Flight 103 with 258 people on board came down in flames and in pieces after a mid-air explosion that aviation experts last night said could only have been caused by massive structural failure, or a bomb.

Trailing flames, spewing burning aviation fuel and scattering wreckage over 10 miles, the doomed aircraft fell from the sky, hit a small hill east of the town and broke up, somersaulting across the main A74 London-Glasgow road before crashing into houses and the petrol station in the town centre.

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All those on board were killed. At least 20 of the townspeople, possibly more, also met their deaths but early today as rescue services were still searching the area with searchlights in pouring rain the final death toll had not been established.

A fireball 300ft high lit up the sky as the aircraft blew up. Houses in the town (population 3,000) 10 miles east of Dumfries and 15 miles north of the Scottish border simply disappeared in the explosion. Others were set ablaze or had their roofs blown off. Pieces of the wreckage carved a huge hole in the A74, blocking the route through the town, and cars driving past were set on fire.

A fleet of rescue services helicopters, ambulances, fire engines and police sped to the scene from all over Scotland and the North of England, but only five casualties had been taken to the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary in Dumfries by early today an indication of how severe the crash was.

An officer with one of the many fire crews in the area said they had lost count of the number of fires. ``Just use your imagination,'' he told reporters.

``Pick a number and multiply by ten. It's as bad as that.''

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said last night: ``The Queen was shocked and appalled by the news of the air crash and is being kept informed.'' In the Commons, both Mrs Thatcher and Mr Neil Kinnock expressed their deep sympathy.

The Prime Minister was being kept fully informed of developments through the night. Mrs Thatcher, who said she was ``shocked by this terrible disaster'' and expressed her deepest sympathies to all the bereaved families, also sent her sympathies to Mr Charles Price, the retiring US Ambassador in London, who flew to the scene late last night.

Mr Malcolm Rifkind, the Secretary of State for Scotland, who also flew to the scene, plans to report back to the Prime Minister this morning, when Mr Paul Channon, Secretary of State for Transport, will make a full statement to MPs.

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