Explosives in Tape Player on Flight 103 : Probers Say Device Probably Was Put on Plane in Frankfurt

Investigators probing the fatal Dec. 21 bombing of a New York-bound Pan American World Airways jumbo jet have concluded that the explosives were concealed in a radio-cassette player that was probably slipped onto the flight in Frankfurt, West Germany, a senior member of the team said here Thursday.

However, said Detective Chief Superintendent John Orr, who is the senior Scottish investigating officer, eight weeks into the probe there is still “insufficient evidence . . . to establish the identity of the person or group responsible for this dreadful crime.”

Orr spoke at a press conference in this village where the fiery wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 smashed to earth, killing 11 residents. The bomb, which tore the plane apart at an altitude of 31,000 feet, also killed all 259 passengers and crew on board.

The ill-fated flight originated aboard a smaller aircraft in Frankfurt, then took on more passengers and switched to a Boeing 747 at London’s Heathrow Airport for the final leg to New York.

“Painstaking and meticulous examination of debris has now led to the conclusion that the explosive device was within a radio-cassette player,” Orr told reporters. He declined to give any further information about the player except to say he has “indications” of the make and that the discovery “may well” point the continuing search for the perpetrators toward a specific country.

Reconstruction of a baggage container previously identified as the one in which the explosion occurred “suggests that the explosive device may have been among the baggage from the Frankfurt flight,” Orr added.

Pressed to elaborate, he said that while the container in question was loaded in London and held some baggage from other sources, it was filled mostly with luggage from Frankfurt. “I am talking about balance of probability,” he said.

West German television quoted a federal Transport Ministry spokesman as saying the British police report on last December’s crash was “premature,” the British news agency Reuters reported. German security sources said there was no evidence that the bomb may have been planted in Frankfurt.

“If the British officials are speculating about clues in the direction of Frankfurt, then they’re doing it apparently with the intention of diverting attention from their own negligence,” Reuters quoted a senior security source as saying.

Bag Not Pinpointed

Orr said investigators have not yet identified the specific bag that contained the bomb. However, he added, “there is the most detailed work under way with forensic assistance to achieve this identification. I have good reason to believe that this can be done.”

An international investigation into the terrorist attack is ostensibly being coordinated by the Scottish police, since the crime occurred in their jurisdiction. However, the search for the bombers involves top anti-terrorist investigators and security agencies from several countries, including the United States, Britain, West Germany and Israel. Most of those agencies prefer to maintain a low profile, and defer, in public at least, to the Scottish authorities.

However, Israeli sources, speaking off the record, have previously said that the Flight 103 bomb was contained in a radio-cassette recorder and that the device had been traced to Frankfurt. The Jerusalem Post printed such a report Feb. 8. The Israelis have also accused the extremist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, led by Ahmed Jibril, of being at least a co-conspirator in the attack.

Suspected Popular Front members arrested during West German police raids last Oct. 26 had a massive store of armaments, including a bomb made of plastic explosive and reportedly designed to be hidden inside a portable Toshiba tape player. The device was rigged with a barometric pressure device that would detonate the charge at a specific altitude, an arrangement tailor-made for sabotaging an aircraft. The Popular Front, which has strong connections to Syria and is opposed to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, has denied involvement in the bombing.

Orr refused to comment Thursday about the detonator of the Pan Am bomb or the specific type of plastic explosive used. To reveal too many details of the investigation would jeopardize “the international work we’re doing now,” he said.

Thursday’s press briefings here were designed to demonstrate both the complexity of the investigation and its progress.

Orr displayed a series of photographs showing the partial reconstruction of the baggage container said to have held the bomb. It included aluminum fragments, some as small as two or three inches in length, which had been discovered over a 20-mile search area and painstakingly assembled on a wooden frame.

Earlier, reporters were taken to a normally off-limits army ammunition depot about 20 miles south of Lockerbie, where wreckage of the jumbo jet has been assembled in a giant storage shed covering 3 acres. The chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway, John Boyd, said more than 80% of the aircraft has been recovered.

In a separate warehouse in Lockerbie, more workmen inspected and catalogued personal effects. Superintendent Douglas Roxburgh said his men have recorded on computers more than 10,000 items of personal property.