Airport compensation claims when bomb gets on plane

[What follows is excerpted from an article published yesterday on the Ahram Online website:]

Russian families may take legal action against Sharm El-Sheikh Airport if it is proven that poor security procedures led to the planting of a bomb which could have brought down a Russian airliner in October, James Healy-Pratt, specialist in airline disasters and aviation accidents, told Ahram Online.

Such legal action may take place “if there is evidence that the security screening services were negligent in permitting an explosive device onto the Metrojet aircraft,” the New York based attorney and aviation law arbitrator Healy-Pratt said.

Egypt’s prime minister said Tuesday that compensation by Egypt for the families is “out of the question,” given that the Egyptian investigative committee has not yet issued its final report.

Russia claimed on Tuesday that a bomb brought down the Russian airliner that crashed in central Sinai, killing all 224 people on board on 31 October, 214 Russian passengers, three Ukranian passengers, and seven crew members. (...)

Back in 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 went down over Scotland by a bomb manufactured by Libyans spies, killing 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground, the then Libyan president [sic] Muammar Ghaddafi paid $10 million to every family of the victims. In 1990, The British Civil Aviation Authority had concluded that an explosive device brought the plane down. The compensation was paid in installments between 2004 and 2008.

[RB: A cynic might suspect that the likelihood of compensation claims against Heathrow Airport was one of the reasons why the Lockerbie investigation so speedily and blithely dismissed Heathrow as the airport of insertion of the bomb and instead concentrated all efforts on Luqa and Frankfurt. Thanks to Dr Morag Kerr’s Adequately Explained by Stupidity? - Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies, we now know that the bomb suitcase was already in AVE 4041, the relevant Pan Am 103 luggage container, at Heathrow before the feeder flight arrived from Frankfurt, allegedly containing a bag from Malta.]

The La Belle disco bombing

[On this date in 1997, the trial of five persons for the bombing of the La Belle disco opened in Berlin. What follows is excerpted from the Wikipedia article 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing:]

On April 5, 1986 three people were killed and around 230 injured when La Belle discothèque was bombed in West Berlin. The entertainment venue was commonly frequented by United States soldiers, and two of the dead and 79 of the injured were American servicemen.

A bomb placed under a table near the disk jockey's booth exploded at 1:45 am CET instantly killing Nermin Hannay, a Turkish woman, and US sergeant Kenneth T Ford. A second American sergeant, James E Goins, died from his injuries two months later. Some of the victims were left permanently disabled due to the injuries caused by the explosion.

Libya was accused of sponsoring the bombing by the US government, and US President Ronald Reagan ordered retaliatory strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya ten days later. The strikes reportedly killed 15-30 people, including Colonel Gaddafi's adopted daughter, and were condemned by the United Nations General Assembly.

A 2001 trial in the US found that the bombing had been "planned by the Libyan secret service and the Libyan Embassy.” (...) 

In spite of reports blaming Libya for the attack on the nightclub, no individual was officially accused of the bombing until the 1990 reunification of Germany and the subsequent opening up of the Stasi archives. Stasi files led German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis to Musbah Abdulghasem Eter, a Libyan who had worked at the Libyan embassy in East Berlin. Stasi files listed him as an agent, and Mehlis said he was the Libyan spy agency's main contact at the embassy.

Eter and four other suspects were arrested in 1996 in Lebanon, Italy, Greece and Berlin, and put on trial a year later. In 2001 Musbah Abdulghasem Eter, and two Palestinians, Yasser Mohammed Chreidi (or Yassar Al-Shuraidi or Yassir Chraidi) and Ali Chanaa were convicted in Berlin's Landgericht of aiding in murder, and Chanaa's former German wife, Mrs Verena Chanaa, was convicted of murder. They were given sentences of 12 to 14 years in prison.

Prosecutor Mehlis proved beyond reasonable doubt that the three men had assembled the bomb in the Chanaas' flat. The explosive was said to have been brought into West Berlin in a Libyan diplomatic bag. Verena Chanaa and her sister, Andrea Häusler, carried it into the La Belle in a travel bag and left five minutes before it exploded. Ms Häusler was acquitted because it could not be proved that she knew a bomb was in the bag.

[RB: A 1998 German television documentary (subtitled in English) convincingly challenges the view that Libya was responsible for this bombing, and provides interesting information on Musbah Eter. A long and detailed article on the circumstances of the disco bombing and the geo-political background can be found here. Musbah Eter features prominently in Ken Dornstein’s documentary My Brother’s Bomber. Relevant commentary can be found here and here.]

The Lockerbie trial judges

[On this date in 1999 the names of the judges for the forthcoming trial at Camp Zeist were disclosed in the media. The report in The Scotsman (which no longer appears on the newspaper’s website but is reproduced on Safia Aoude’s The Pan Am 103 Crash Website) reads as follows:]

The three Scottish High Court judges who will hear the Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands were named yesterday. The appointment of Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean, with Lord Abernethy as a substitute, was seen as an indication that arrangements for the trial, scheduled to begin on 2 February [2000], were continuing in spite of a preliminary hearing in the case next week.

Yesterday, the Scottish Court Service announced that Lord Cullen, the Lord Justice-Clerk, had appointed the four judges who will be involved in the Lockerbie trial. The task of delivering verdicts, which can be by a majority, will lie with three of the judges, Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean. The fourth, Lord Abernethy, will sit with his colleagues and can take part in their deliberations, but will not vote in any decision, either on such things as the admissibility of evidence or the verdicts. However, should one of the three judges die or fall ill, Lord Abernethy will be asked to take over a full role.

“We've got a team of very experienced judges here. Really the top people in Scotland,” Alistair Bonnington at the University of Glasgow's Lockerbie briefing centre, told Reuters. “Because there is no jury, the trial is likely to be very technical and full of legal points. And one common link between all the judges chosen is that they are all considered excellent lawyers,” Bonnington said. [RB: I must disagree with Mr Bonnington. Three of the four judges were considered within the profession in Scotland to be good lawyers (“excellent” would be slightly over-egging the pudding in the case of two) and one was considered mediocre.]

Lord Sutherland (Ranald), 67, the presiding judge. Lord Sutherland has been a Judge since 1985. He is a member of the First Division of the Inner House. He is a graduate of Edinburgh University (MA LLB) and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1956. He served as an Advocate Depute from 1962 to 1964 and from 1971 to 1977 and was Standing Junior to the Ministry of Defence from 1964 to 1969. Lord Sutherland was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1969. He was a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board from 1977 until 1985.ed to the bench in 1985 and, next to Lord McCluskey, is the longest serving of Scotland’s current complement of 27 judges. In recent years, the majority of Lord Sutherland’s duties have been in appeal courts, which he often chairs. His seniority has been recognised in holding the post of Scottish representative to the International Association of Judges. The late Nicholas Fairbairn, QC, once said that Lord Sutherland was "a suave, curt, incisive silk (QC) with a taste for gin and a mind as sharp as his manner is glib his cigarettes are many and his words are few".

Lord Coulsfield (John Cameron), 65, became a Judge in 1987 and now sits in the Second Division of the Inner House and in the Lands Valuation Appeal Court. He is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford (BA, Corpus Christi College) and Edinburgh (LLB) and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1960. From 1960 to 1964 he lectured in Public Law at Edinburgh University. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1973 and served as an Advocate Depute from 1977 to 1979. Lord Coulsfield was a Chairman of the Medical Appeals Tribunal for Scotland from 1985 to 1987 and was the Scottish judge on the Employment Appeal Tribunal from 1992 to 1996. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Session, he was a Judge in the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey. He is an editor of "Scottish Law and Practice Quarterly". Lord Coulsfield has been a judge for 12 years. In that time, he has heard a good number of headline-making cases. For example, he presided over the first trial in Scotland of a drug supplier who was charged with culpable homicide after the death of a user. Lord Coulsfield acquitted the man, holding he could not be said to have caused the death when the user had sought the supply of the drugs and had decided how much to take. However, the appeal court later overturned the judgment. Lord Coulsfield also chaired a committee which led to the creation of a specialised court in Scotland for commercial actions and was a "commercial judge" from 1996 to 1998.

Lord MacLean (Ranald), 60, has often been irritated by media portrayals of judges being out of touch and aloof. In 1997, after seven years on the bench, he hit back in a speech and said: "I do not understand why we are so consistently represented as remote, disinterested in ordinary folk, ignorant of everyday facts and insensitive." He added: "You cannot have practised successfully and widely at the Scottish bar without learning something about the general human condition. I may never have lived in the poorest areas of our major cities, but I believe that I have some insight into what they must be like." One of his most anxious cases, the first of its kind in Scotland, was in 1996 when he gave the go-ahead for a mentally handicapped woman to be sterilised. He said that removing the risk of the woman, 32, becoming pregnant was in her own best interests. A graduate of the Universities of Cambridge (BA, Clare College), Edinburgh (LLB) and Yale (LLM), Lord MacLean has been a Judge since 1990. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1964 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1977. He served as an Advocate Depute from 1972 to 1975 and was Home Advocate Depute from 1979 to 1982. He has served on the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the Council on Tribunals and the Stewart Committee on Alternatives to Prosecution. Lord MacLean has been a member of the Parole Board for Scotland since 1998, a member of the Secretary of State for Scotland's Criminal Justice Forum since 1996, and the Chairman of the Governors of Fettes College, Edinburgh since 1996. From 1988 to 1996 he was Chairman of the Council of the Cockburn Association. In January 1999 he was appointed Chairman of a committee established by the Secretary of State for Scotland. Its remit is to review the sentencing and treatment of serious sexual and violent offenders including those with personality disorders.

Lord Abernethy (Alastair Cameron), 61, was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and joined the English bar before moving to the Scottish Faculty of Advocates, where he served as vice-dean for nine years and built up a strong reputation in the field of medical negligence. Lord Abernethy became a Judge in 1992. He is a graduate of Oxford University (Pembroke College, MA) and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College. He was called to the Bar (InnerTemple) in 1963 and in 1966 he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1979. He was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Advocates from 1983 to 1992. He was an Advocate Depute from 1972 to 1975 and served as Standing Junior Counsel to the Department of Energy (1976-79) and the Scottish Development Department (1978-79). He was a Legal Chairman of Pensions Appeal Tribunals for Scotland from 1979 to 1992 and President of the Tribunals from 1985 to 1992. Lord Abernethy is an active member of the International Bar Association. He was Chairman of the Association's Judges' Forum from 1994 to 1998. Since then he has been a council member of the Association's Section on Legal Practice and its Human Rights Institute. He has been President of the Scottish Medico-Legal Society since 1996 and is the author of Medical Negligence: An Introduction (1983).

Prosecution case in Lockerbie trial was itself a conspiracy theory

[What follows is an excerpt from a long article by Professor Hugh Roberts entitled Who said Gaddafi had to go? that was published in the London Review of Books on this date in 2011:]

Since February [2001], it has been relentlessly asserted that the Libyan government was responsible both for the bombing of a Berlin disco on 5 April 1986 and the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. News of Gaddafi’s violent end was greeted with satisfaction by the families of the American victims of Lockerbie, understandably full of bitterness towards the man they have been assured by the US government and the press ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103. But many informed observers have long wondered about these two stories, especially Lockerbie. Jim Swire, the spokesman of UK Families Flight 103, whose daughter was killed in the bombing, has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the official version. Hans Köchler, an Austrian jurist appointed by the UN as an independent observer at the trial, expressed concern about the way it was conducted (notably about the role of two US Justice Department officials who sat next to the Scottish prosecuting counsel throughout and appeared to be giving them instructions). Köchler described al-Megrahi’s conviction as ‘a spectacular miscarriage of justice’. Swire, who also sat through the trial, subsequently launched the Justice for Megrahi campaign. In a resumé of Gaddafi’s career shown on BBC World Service Television on the night of 20 October, John Simpson stopped well short of endorsing either charge, noting of the Berlin bombing that ‘it may or may not have been Colonel Gaddafi’s work,’ an honest formula that acknowledged the room for doubt. Of Lockerbie he remarked cautiously that Libya subsequently ‘got the full blame’, a statement that is quite true.

It is often claimed by British and American government personnel and the Western press that Libya admitted responsibility for Lockerbie in 2003-4. This is untrue. As part of the deal with Washington and London, which included Libya paying $2.7 billion to the 270 victims’ families, the Libyan government in a letter to the president of the UN Security Council stated that Libya ‘has facilitated the bringing to justice of the two suspects charged with the bombing of Pan Am 103, and accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials’. That this formula was agreed in negotiations between the Libyan and British (if not also American) governments was made clear when it was echoed word for word by Jack Straw in the House of Commons. The formula allowed the government to give the public the impression that Libya was indeed guilty, while also allowing Tripoli to say that it had admitted nothing of the kind. The statement does not even mention al-Megrahi by name, much less acknowledge his guilt or that of the Libyan government, and any self-respecting government would sign up to the general principle that it is responsible for the actions of its officials. Tripoli’s position was spelled out by the prime minister, Shukri Ghanem, on 24 February 2004 on the Today programme: he made it clear that the payment of compensation did not imply an admission of guilt and explained that the Libyan government had ‘bought peace’.

The standards of proof underpinning Western judgments of Gaddafi’s Libya have not been high. The doubt over the Lockerbie trial verdict has encouraged rival theories about who really ordered the bombing, which have predictably been dubbed ‘conspiracy theories’. But the prosecution case in the Lockerbie trial was itself a conspiracy theory. And the meagre evidence adduced would have warranted acquittal on grounds of reasonable doubt, or, at most, the ‘not proven’ verdict that Scottish law allows for, rather than the unequivocally ‘guilty’ verdict brought in, oddly, on one defendant but not the other. I do not claim to know the truth of the Lockerbie affair, but the British are slow to forgive the authors of atrocities committed against them and their friends. So I find it hard to believe that a British government would have fallen over itself as it did in 2003-5 to welcome Libya back into the fold had it really held Gaddafi responsible. And in view of the number of Scottish victims of the bombing, it is equally hard to believe that SNP politicians would have countenanced al-Megrahi’s release if they believed the guilty verdict had been sound. The hypothesis that Libya and Gaddafi and al-Megrahi were framed is to be taken very seriously indeed. And if it were the case, it would follow that the greatly diminished prospect of reform from 1989 onwards as the regime battened down the hatches to weather international sanctions, the material suffering of the Libyan people during this period, and the aggravation of internal conflict (notably the Islamist terrorist campaign waged by the LIFG between 1995 and 1998) can all in some measure be laid at the West’s door.

The Senegal timer

[What follows is the text of a report published on the BBC News website on this date in 2000:]

A Libyan secret service agent alleged by the prosecution to have gathered explosives and detonators used to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 has been questioned at the Lockerbie trial.

Mansour Omran Ammar Saber is named as one of the "others" in the indictment against the two Libyans accused of carrying out the bombing in December 1988.

The Crown says Mr Saber and other Libyan agents provided the explosives, detonator and timer.

Alan Turnbull, for the prosecution, referred in particular to one incident in February 1988, when Saber was arrested at Dakar airport in Senegal.

He was said to have been beaten unconscious and held in custody for four months after explosives and timers were discovered, allegedly in his baggage.

The witness denied all knowledge of the explosives.

The prosecution says the timer was made by Swiss firm Mebo on the orders of the head of the Libyan Secret Service in 1985.

Mr Turnbull showed the court photographs of explosives, timers, wires and a gun, believed to have been confiscated from him on his arrival at Dakar Airport.

He questioned Mr Saber on how the timer had ended up at Dakar Airport at the same time as him.

"It's none of my business and I don't know anything about it," he replied.

Later, the focus moved to the so-called Autumn Leaves investigation by the BKA German police unit which resulted in the arrest of several Palestinians and the discovery of weapons, ammunition and explosives at a Frankfurt flat in October 1988.

Three members of the BKA unit appeared and defence lawyers sought to show that Palestinian groups were active and gathering weapons and explosives in Germany shortly before the Pan Am 103 explosion.

The defence has suggested the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) were involved in the attack on the Pan Am plane.

The prosecution continues its case on Friday and is expected to conclude on Monday or Tuesday.

Presiding Judge Lord Sutherland granted the defence a one-week adjournment for lawyers to consider their position and prepare arrangements for the appearance of defence witnesses.

The trial, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands, is now in its 70th day.

[The report on the proceedings of 16 November 2000 from Glasgow University’s Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit can be accessed here. The story of the Senegal timer can be followed here, on Dr Ludwig de Braeckeleer’s PT35B website.]

Crown granted Abu Talb immunity from prosecution

[What follows is the report by Glasgow University’s Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit on proceedings at Camp Zeist on this date in 2000. It can be accessed here:]

Lord Sutherland today confirmed that Abu Talb had been granted immunity from prosecution in relation to the Lockerbie disaster. He said that this immunity did not mean that Talb did not require to answer questions put to him in court or that he could not be prosecuted from contempt of court if he continued to refuse to answer questions. [RB: Abu Talb must have been granted special immunity by the Lord Advocate. He was not called by the Crown as an accomplice of Megrahi and Fhimah, and so did not benefit from the general immunity accorded to prosecution witnesses called as socii criminis.]

Yesterday Richard Keen's cross-examination of Talb had to be suspended when he refused to answer questions. The Judges had to consider whether they could compel Talb to answer questions. They concluded yes.  Alistair Campbell told the court that the Judges had no effective sanction against Talb as he required to be returned to Sweden on the 18 November.

The cross examination by Keen continued with Talb eventually confirming that he was 'not innocent' in respect of the 1985 bombing in Copenhagen for which he is currently serving a life sentence. Talb continued to maintain his innocence in respect of the Lockerbie disaster. He denied sending his brother in Spring 1985 from Sweden to Syria, to learn to make bombs and said that he did not remember his brother returning in June 1985 with $5,000 and instructions that Talb was to bomb US and Jewish targets. He denied that his brother had smuggled 4 detonators in the handle of his case.

Talb had told the court that he had ceased association with the Popular Palestinian Struggle Front (PPSF) when he moved to Sweden in 1983. Talb said that no one had instructed him to carry out the Copenhagen bombing but Keen suggested he was merely unwilling to tell the Court who was implicated or responsible for the terrorist acts he was involved in. Talb answered "yes, because I did not know the person."

Talb denied returning to Malta in November 1988 and sending a radio cassette to a Post Office Box in Malta. The witness, who is named in the special defence of incrimination lodged by the two accused, will now be returned to the Swedish jail where he is serving a life sentence for murder.

The cross-examination of Abu Talb

[What follows is the text of the report by Glasgow University’s Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit on the proceedings at Camp Zeist on this date in 2000. It can be accessed here:]

The Lockerbie trial continued today with the cross examination of Abu Talb. Talb who is mentioned in the special defence of incrimination which has been lodged by the two accused denied being involved with the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front since the end of 1982. He admitted that he is currently serving a prison sentence in relation to his conviction for bombing a Danish synagogue in 1985 but denied having committed the crime. He had denied any involvement in the Lockerbie disaster during his examination in chief on Friday.

Bill Taylor also asked Talb about terrorist activity by members of his family. Talb told the court that his sister-in-law had been killed while she carried out an assassination attempt in Israel. He said she may have been killed by the current Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, who was then a senior army officer. Talb described his sister-in-law as a martyr. He denied knowledge of Taylor's suggestion that his brother-in-law had carried detonators in the handle of a suitcase from Syria to Sweden.

The cross-examination continued with Richard Keen suggesting that Talb had collected a bomb from a house in Germany shortly before the Lockerbie disaster. Talb said this was a lie. Talb also denied spitting in the face of an investigator when he was visited in prison.  He said that as a Muslim he would not have done such a thing.  On September 28 Harold Hendershot, a special agent with the FBI was asked if Talb had spat in his face when he interviewed him in connection with the Lockerbie disaster. Hendershot said he did not remember this.

The afternoon proceedings came to an abrupt end when Talb was removed from the Court when he refused to answer Keen's questions. Keen had repeatedly asked questions regarding training received in the Soviet Union. He said Talb was a 'murderer and liar'. Talb was then removed from the Court. Keen told the judges that Talb was a professional terrorist. The court adjourned until tomorrow morning to allow the Judges to decide if they can compel Talb to answer Keen's questions.

[An account of Abu Talb’s first day in the witness box can be read here.]

US announces charges against Megrahi and Fhimah

[What follows is one of the items for this date in 1991 on the On This Day section of the BBC website:]

US accuses Libyans of Lockerbie bombing

Two Libyan intelligence officers have been accused of masterminding the Lockerbie bombing.

The United States has called on Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi to hand over the two men, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah.

The men have been indicted in the US on 193 charges, including three which carry the death penalty.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for the two Libyans in Scotland on charges of murder and conspiracy in relation to bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988.

The plane was en route from London to New York when it exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.

President George Bush is to consult British Prime Minister John Major and other world leaders over the next few days to decide the international response.

Both President Bush and Mr Major have refused to rule out military action if Libya fails to hand over the suspects for trial.

However, Libya's ambassador to France, Saeeb Mujber, has said his country would not comply with the indictments.

Mr Mujber told the BBC that surrendering the two men would be to surrender Libya's sovereignty.

Libya had been implicated as an excuse for a military assault, he added.

"'This is a political thing. This is a lynching to bring Libya to its knees," Mr Mujber said.

But the US acting Attorney General, William Barr, said a fragment from the Toshiba radio-cassette recorder which contained the bomb linked the accused to the crime.

"Scientists determined that it was part of the bomb's timing device and traced it to its manufacturer - a Swiss company that had sold it to a high-level Libyan intelligence official," Mr Barr said.

Lockerbie bombing: will we ever know the truth?

[This is the headline over a report published today on the ITV News website. It reads as follows:]

A former British ambassador to Libya says he's not convinced questions will ever fully be answered about the Lockerbie bombing.

It's a month since Scottish prosecutors announced they want to speak to two Libyan suspects in connection with the downing of Pam Am flight 103 in 1988 which killed 270 people:

I think we will probably never know the truth, I would say one major reservation, or exception is that, I could imagine there might be a deathbed confession.

Someone who was involved might on his deathbed tell the story, so to speak."

– OLIVER MILES, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO LIBYA

[A further report on ITV News reads as follows:]

Lockerbie bombing: 'if it was Libya, it was Gaddafi'

Throughout the Lockerbie bombing investigation, questions have been raised about the involvement of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the crime.

Oliver Miles spent a short time as British Ambassador to Libya in 1984, and he isn't certain Libya was involved at all.

But he says if the country was involved, it was certainly organised at the highest level:

Don't forget that Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the crime, was convicted of conspiracy. No-one imagines that he acted alone.

There must have been a team, if he was part of it, it was a Libyan team, and if it was a Libyan team, it was Gaddafi."

– OLIVER MILES, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO LIBYA

Jim Sheridan's Lockerbie film

[What follows is excerpted from a report published on 11 November on the Syracuse.com website:]

On Monday, Nov 16, Le Moyne College will host the Oscar-nominated Irish writer, director and producer Jim Sheridan to speak about his career. (...)

Sheridan's most recent project, The Secret Scripture (starring Vanessa Redgrave, Rooney Mara, Theo James and Eric Bana) is in post-production and set for a 2016 release. (...)

After The Secret Scripture release, Sheridan hopes to turn his full attention to a major project with ties to Syracuse: a screenplay about the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing on Dec. 21, 1988.

Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, including 35 Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad, and five others with ties to Central New York.

"I remember when it happened; it was a terrible disaster," Sheridan said. "It would be good to put Lockerbie to rest."

Right now, Sheridan is doing research for the screenplay. It's in its early stages, with the working title "Lockerbie."

"I want to respect the families," Sheridan said. "It's still raw. My brother died in 1967 and it still controls our family in a way. I can only imagine the level of grief there is."

Sheridan said his approach to this subject is "very open-minded" and "based on the evidence." He's interested in Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan who was the only person convicted in the terror case.

In 2001, al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison, but was granted a "compassionate release" in 2009 after doctors said he had advanced prostate cancer. He died in Libya after receiving a hero's welcome.

Until his death, al-Megrahi professed his innocence. Jim Swire, an English doctor whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, believes al-Megrahi was innocent.

"I find it a fascinating subject but I don't want to take sides," Sheridan said. "I think the whole story is really about Swire and al-Megrahi's friendship."