Jury Finds Pan Am Guilty in Suit Over Lockerbie Bombing

Jurors on Friday found Pan Am guilty of willful misconduct in allowing a bomb to be smuggled aboard the jumbo jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

The lawsuit by a group of the victims’ survivors sought $300 million or more. The damages, which would be paid by Pan Am’s insurers, will be awarded later.

Under international treaties, liability damages are limited to $75,000 for each victim, unless willful negligence is proved.

The verdict came on the third day of deliberations after an 11-week trial in U. S. District Court. It brought a burst of smiles, tears and hugs from the dozens of victims’ relatives in the courtroom.

Two Pan Am subsidiaries, Alert Management Inc. and Pan American World Services, also were found guilty of willful misconduct. Alert ran the airline’s security operations at foreign airports.

The bombing killed all 259 people aboard the plane and 11 people on the ground when the jumbo jet crashed in the Scottish village on Dec. 21, 1988.

Thomas G. Plaskett, former chairman of Pan Am, said in a statement that “much of what we do know with certainty about Lockerbie was not shared with this jury, and so today’s verdict, much like the whole affair, remains clouded by uncertainty.

“We shall endeavor through the appeals process to shed some light on this uncertainty,” he said.

On Thursday, the jurors said they were deadlocked; Platt told them to keep deliberating.

“One of the jurors turned to me and smiled. And then I think I knew what the outcome would be,” said Eleanor Bright, of Brookline, Mass., whose husband was among those killed. “I feel that justice was done.”

“For 3 1/2 years, I’ve been sitting here feeling that this shouldn’t have happened. And this jury just vindicated that through their verdict,” said Richard Mack of Evanston, Ill., who lost his brother.

Attorneys for the families argued that as the now-defunct airline sank further into financial difficulties, it put business interest ahead of passenger safety.

But lawyers for Pan Am and its insurance carriers called the airline a victim of foreign terrorists and said it should not be held responsible.

The plaintiffs maintained the bomb was in an unaccompanied suitcase put aboard an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt. They said the bag was then properly transferred to Flight 103 by Pan Am employees who failed to examine it and note that it was unaccompanied.