The day of the Lockerbie bombing – level 2

21-12-1988

It’s the time before Christmas in 1988. Many people are preparing for the Christmas holidays. Many of them are travelling from Europe to the USA to visit their families.

On December 21, 1988, a big plane takes off from London. It’s going to New York, USA. There are 259 people on board. At 19:03 or 7:03 PM, a bomb explodes in the luggage space in the front of the plane. The explosion breaks the plane.

Parts of the plane fall from 9 kilometers down to the town of Lockerbie in the south of Scotland. The biggest part has 90 tons. When the parts of the plane hit the ground, they kill 11 people who live in Lockerbie. All 259 people on board the plane also die in the disaster. At that time, nobody knows that it was a terrorist attack.

A big investigation begins after the tragedy. Soon, people know that there was a bomb on board the plane. At that moment, it was clear that it was a terrorist attack.

The bomb was placed in a briefcase of a passenger who arrived from Malta. However, he didn’t board the plane in London to continue the flight. The information finally leads to a Libyan Secret Service officer. Maybe he did it because the US army attacked Libyan planes and ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

Difficult words: disaster (a catastrophe, a very bad event), investigation (when people try to find the truth about an accident), however (but), board (to get on a plane), lead (to show a direction or to find information).

What was the result of the investigation into the terrorist attack on the plane heading from London to New York on December 21, 1988?

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