Pan Am Flight 103 in secret return to Scotland

[This is the headline over a report in today’s Scottish edition of The Sun.  It reads in part:]

A convoy of six lorries secretly returned the Lockerbie jet to Scots soil — a quarter of a century after Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up in an atrocity never to be forgotten.

The remains of the plane — which exploded in 1988 killing 270 people — were taken to an unknown secure location a few miles from the Dumfriesshire town.

The fuselage of the Boeing 747, painstakingly reconstructed in the aftermath of the terror attack, is back to aid fresh efforts to nail the accomplices of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi — the only person convicted over the blast.

It had previously been housed at an air accident investigation hangar in the south of England for almost 25 years.

Relatives of the victims were told of the move last week as the crucial central section of the plane was transported 350 miles north from Farnborough, Hants.

A source said: “The wreckage is clearly a vital piece of evidence for the Crown Office and police, should their investigations into suspects in Libya lead to more charges.

“The fuselage had been taken apart again before being transported, but it could be put back together if necessary as all the pieces are catalogued in detail.

“There have been questions over who should be storing the plane for the past decade.

“The premises where it was kept was being refurbished and it was felt most sensible to bring it back to Scotland. We have entered a new phase in the investigation after the collapse of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, so it is important the wreckage is on hand in Scotland, meaning investigators have easy access.”

Former Libyan intelligence officer Megrahi died aged 60 of prostate cancer nearly three years after he was released by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds. He is the only person convicted of Britain’s most deadly terror attack.

But the Crown Office believe others must have been involved. 

[A report headed Lockerbie wreckage parts returned to Scotland has now appeared on the BBC News website.]