World : Bomb Position Located on Jet

LOCKERBIE, Scotland — Police investigating the bombing of a Pan Am jetliner last month that killed 270 people said today they have identified the baggage compartment where the explosive was hidden, information that would reveal when it was planted.

Authorities also know the names of passengers aboard Flight 103 whose luggage was packed in the baggage container and their backgrounds will be checked, police said.

But Detective Chief Supt. John Orr refused to say if the plastic explosive was smuggled on board in Frankfurt, West Germany, where the Pan American World Airways flight originated, or at London’s Heathrow Airport, where the flight and baggage changed planes to a Boeing 747.

“I may have an indication as to where the baggage . . . came from but I don’t think it would be helpful here at this time to be specific about it,” said Orr, who heads the inquiry in the Scottish village of Lockerbie where the plane fell from the sky Dec. 21.