Lockerbie
Subtitle: The Story and the Lessons
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Published: November 30, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9780275964931
Subjects: Aerospace & air transport industries; International Law; International relations; Police & security services; Public health & preventive medicine; Terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle; Warfare & Defence; Political Terrorism; Social Science; Politics / Current Events; Sociology; Aviation - History; International Relations - General; Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism; Political Science / International Relations; Aviation - General; Criminology; Bombing investigation; Case studies; Lockerbie; Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Inci; Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Incident, 1988; Scotland; Terrorism; United States
First sentence: As the air traffic control clock at London's Heathrow airport showed twenty-five minutes past six on the evening of 21 December 1988, a Boeing 747 of the Pan American World Airways fleet slowly began its takeoff run along runaway 27R.
Description: "The explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, is a tragedy that never should have happened. Rodney Wallis, an expert in aviation security matters, warned the industry one year before the bombing that transfer of baggage from one airline to another represented the prime opportunity for terrorist activity. As a remedy to this weak link in security, Wallis urged the adoption of passenger and baggage matching, a system that he had helped to develop.

Mandated by the FAA for use at high-risk airports, this was the critical feature missing from Pan Am's activity at Frankfurt, an omission so cruelly exploited by the bombers. Wallis argues that governments' primary emphasis on technological solutions to the continuing terrorist threat puts the flying public at unnecessary risk every day.".

"This book brings together all of the facts surrounding the sabotage of Flight 103, including the investigation and the civil litigation in which so much of the story unfolded for the first time. It uncovers the fundamental weaknesses in Pan Am's communication and management policies which created an environment where good security was impossible.

Wallis supports the policy that "politics are politics" and explores the possibility that U.S. and U.K. policy towards a "neutral" trial for the two Libyans indicted for the bombing may have been affected more by the wider scenario of Middle East politics than simple justice for the victims of Lockerbie. Although the tragedy has led to improvements in defense technology for use against acts of aviation sabotage, these methods have yet to be applied universally."--BOOK JACKET.