Lockerbie trial begins day two with eyewitness accounts of explosion

May 4, 2000
Web posted at: 8:17 a.m. EDT (1217 GMT)

In this story: Explosion 'like an atomic bomb' Defendants plead not guilty RELATED STORIES, SITES

CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands (CNN) -- Testimony on the second day of the trial of two Libyans accused of planting a bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 focused Thursday on vivid eyewitness accounts of the Boeing 747's crash on the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

All 259 people on board the aircraft and 11 people on the ground were killed when the plane exploded on December 21, 1988.

The defendants, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, are being tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law. The former U.S. air base at Camp Zeist was converted into a multimillion dollar high-security courtroom and detention center for the trial.

Libya, concerned that the two Libyans could not get a fair trial in Scotland, insisted that the trial be held in a neutral country before it would agree to hand the pair over. Under a U.N.-brokered deal made last year, Camp Zeist was declared Scottish territory for the proceedings.

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The first witness, food processing company manager Stephen Charles Tegel, reported seeing a white flash as he drove along an empty road on the night of the explosion.

"There was the flash and then an orange glowing object which continued in a gradually descending trajectory that was getting ever steeper as it went through the sky," Tegel said.

When the plane hit the ground, he said, he saw "a massive fireball that was V-shaped. Two distinct flames shot into the air, one higher than the other."

Explosion 'like an atomic bomb'

Prosecutors began the morning with descriptions of exhibits, radar frequencies and station recordings and transcripts of conversations between Pan Am 103 and ground control before calling five witnesses who saw the plane crash. The witnesses' testimony spoke to the location of the explosion, helping to establish the Scottish court's jurisdiction in the matter.

In an hour-and-a-half session, the witnesses gave often very emotional testimony reliving that December night.

When he was waiting in his car outside Lockerbie's train station for his daughter, Roland Stevenson told the court, he heard a thunderous noise and got out to see what it was. Above the town, Stevenson said, he saw "a black mass with lights, gliding at a shallow angle."

On his drive home, Stevenson said he saw "cars burning on the highway."

Lockerbie resident Jasmine Bell testified she dodged "fire just raining down right beside me" after the explosion, and realized that an unidentified lump in the dark street that she first thought was "just meat" was the remains of a human body.

Ian Wood, who recalled watching parts of the plane fall from the sky and hit houses across the street, testified that the explosion "looked like an atomic bomb."

Defendants plead not guilty

Al-Megrahi and Fahima have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and contravention of airline security. The Libyans can be convicted of only one of the charges, however, and while punishment for conspiracy is discretionary, the other two charges carry mandatory life sentences.

Prosecutors have submitted a list of more than 1,000 potential witnesses and the defense has listed 125 possible witnesses for the trial, which is expected to last a year.

Witnesses on Wednesday's opening day of the trial described Pan Am Flight 103's flight path to New York and its disappearance from radar over Scotland.

Defense attorneys, who had no questions for Thursday morning's witnesses, say they intend to prove that the bombing was carried out by two militant Palestinian groups: the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine-General Command and the Palestine Popular Struggle Front.

Samir Ghosheh, director of the Popular Struggle Front and an executive member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, emphatically denied his group had any part in the bombing.

"It's a false accusation which we condemn," he said. "And all of it is an attempt to portray Palestinians as terrorists."

Correspondent Nic Robertson, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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