On 21 December 1988, the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland entered the mainstream when a Pan Am plane broke up mid-air and crashed close to the town. All 259 crew members and passengers were killed while 11 locals also lost their lives from the fires started from the
smoldering debris from the plane. The plane was on route to New York from London when a bomb activated by a timer which was stored in a suitcase toward the front of the plane detonated at 7PM GMT. Investigators at the crash site believed that two intelligence agents
from Libya were responsible for the crash though Muammar Gaddafi refused to turn the agents in.

The plane crash was another blow for the Pan Am airline as it had faced the 1973 oil crisis, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and now had to face a fine for 19 security failures by the FAA. The controversy from the crash among other financial downturns for the company saw Pan
Am cease operations in December 1991.