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Essay on Emergency Response To Pan Am Flight PA103
Introduction
On December 21, 1988 a Pan Am Boeing 747-121 aircraft which was flying from London to Frankfurt on its way to New York suddenly disappeared from the radar screen as it was flying over Lockerby, Scotland immediately after it had been given its clearance by Shanwick Oceanic Control. The radar echo was seen to have disappeared into many secondary echoes just before the plane lost contact, indicating a crash.
The flight number was Pan Am Flight PA103 and the aircraft was named "Maid of the Seas". The aircraft had taken off from London's Heathrow airport at 18.25 hrs and had leveled off at FL 310 North West of Pole Hill VOR at 18.56 hrs. The exact time of the crash was 21 December 1988 at 19:02:50 hrs and the incident was notified to the British authority entrusted with handling aircraft accidents, the Aircraft Accident Investigations Branch AAIB at 19:40 hrs on the same day (Aoude, 2000).
A major portion of the fuselage of the plane hit the ground on the southern edge of the city of Lockerby in Scotland creating a huge creator. Aircraft engines were also found scattered in the city and elements of the airplane wreckage were also to be found at distances of 130 km from the crash site. The creator created was so huge that it displaced an estimated 1500 tons of earth and 21 residential buildings in the area were demolished as a result of the crash which also killed 22 people on the ground and set fire to a petrol station.
The plane had a seating capacity of 412 and there were 243 passengers on board. Many of the passengers were carrying Christmas packages and included three children, 38 undergraduates studying abroad on a Syracuse....
