Pan American Is Fined $630,000 for Security Violations in Europe

Pan American World Airways has been fined $630,000 for security violations discovered in the course of an investigation spurred by the terrorist bombing of Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, officials announced Wednesday.

In the aftermath of the Dec. 21 disaster, the Federal Aviation Administration found lapses in Pan Am’s passenger and baggage screening at Frankfurt and London, where the New York-bound flight originated and stopped. FAA spokesman John Leyden said, however, that there was no direct relation between the lapses and the destruction of the plane in which 270 people died.

The airline has 30 days to appeal the fines, among the largest ever leveled for security violations. The fines also cited three other Pan Am flights at London and two others at Frankfurt.

The since-corrected violations were discovered between Dec. 22 and Jan. 31, Leyden said. Two months before the bombing, the FAA warned Pan Am to beef up some of its security procedures.

Investigators believe that a bomb hidden in a radio-cassette player in the baggage compartment blew apart the Boeing 747.

Leyden said that the violations included failure to identify passengers for further screening before allowing them and their baggage aboard the flight, improper methods used to check carry-on baggage of passengers and failure to conduct the required search of cargo areas before loading the airliner.

Leyden also said that although one ticket holder in London did not board, his baggage was allowed to be placed on the aircraft.

“The matters raised were generally of an administrative, rather than substantive, nature,” said Thomas G. Plaskett, chairman and chief executive officer of Pan Am. “ . . . There is no evidence that any of the items noted in the December inspection by the FAA were in any way related to the bombing of our aircraft.