Remembering Pan Am Flight 103

[Esteban]

December 21, 1988 Pan Am Flight 103:

While the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103

RIP to all those that lost their lives.

[MassWholeBimmer]

Yes. R I P. In the early 2000's, I drove to the Lockerbie memorial when on a business trip in the UK. Very sobering.

[Alfisti]

I was young but I clearly remember this, just horrible. WHat has always amazed me is what did it achieve other than a whole whack of dead persons? As in what did the perpetrator achieve?

Terrible.

[erickonphoenix]

An absolute tragedy to destroy so many lives for political theater. RIP to all the families affected.

[KevinC]

My niece's husband was scheduled to be in the right seat that day, but trip traded and inadvertently avoided the tragedy. Fate works in strange ways. RIP to all the victims of this horrific crime.

[Joralemon st.]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I was young but I clearly remember this, just horrible. WHat has always amazed me is what did it achieve other than a whole whack of dead persons? As in what did the perpetrator achieve?

Terrible.

What do terrorists normally achieve, or aim to?

[Joralemon st.]

I remember this, horrible. Especially if you watch/read about how it happened for the passengers and crew...

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Joralemon st.

What do terrorists normally achieve, or aim to?

All too frequently, terrorists succeed in what they've set out to achieve. That's why this continues to be an issue. There's a saying among terrorists: "We only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." The security services are only too aware of this unpleasant fact.

At the same time, the list of examples of when this backfires are legion. It's not like terroristic acts always win out. Hamas' Sinwar must have forgotten what Hezbollah's Nasrallah learned in 2006; or, he figured that he could make it work better than Nasrallah did with remarkably fewer resources and backing.

As always seems to be the case, the terrorists seem not to care at all about the penalty paid by the people they claim to care about most.

[Joralemon st.]

Originally Posted by dradernh

All too frequently, terrorists succeed in what they've set out to achieve. That's why this continues to be an issue. There's a saying among terrorists: "We only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." The security services are only too aware of this unpleasant fact.

At the same time, the list of examples of when this backfires are legion. It's not like terroristic acts always win out. Hamas' Sinwar must have forgotten what Hezbollah's Nasrallah learned in 2006; or, he figured that he could make it work better than Nasrallah did with remarkably fewer resources and backing.

As always seems to be the case, the terrorists seem not to care at all about the penalty paid by the people they claim to care about most.

It's extremely difficult to prevent actions of those who do not value their own life. It is possible and it does happen, but usually something like this needs to happen first.

Terrorists could no longer load luggage onto a plane and just not go — you'd think that would complicate things and it most likely did, but then they find people who are willing to personally fly airliners into skyscrapers.