ERBIE
came from a prototype timer never supplied to Libya. At the trial this fragment became a green 9-ply circuit board, from the MST-13!
In May 2000, Dr Rosemary Wilkinson, a bio- medical expert at Strathclyde University carried out an analysis of this item using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and found no evidence of it being adjacent to an explosive detonation; absence of pitting, no coating of the specimens with foreign material, no evidence of local melting (solder melts at 183 degrees while Semtex would generate in the region of 2000 degrees) and finally the edges of the fragment show no explosive damage such as tearing, the cut appears to be mechanical.
As a result of my involvement in the early stages of the investigation in 1989 with Professor Paul Wilkinson of Aberdeen
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astonishment there was nothing, just dust. For subsequent tests, we included a PCB to simulate the timer made out of the same material and painted dayglo yellow so that we could pick out any fragments more easily.
University, my appearance as an expert witness at the Supreme Court of Appeal in two high profile terrorist cases and my PhD in explosive engineering, I was asked to carry out an explosive test to assess more accurately the results of a similar explosion that occurred on Pan Am 103 to clear up these anomalies.
There had been nine explosive tests carried out in the USA between 18 April and 25 July 1989. Seven were done at Indianhead near Washington DC and two at Atlantic City under the auspices of the FAA and RARDE. On reading the reports from these tests, there seemed to be little planning or formal post- explosive analysis documentation.
In order to obtain accurate information, one needs to do the same test at least three times to ensure consistency in the results. The next series of tests should only change one significant factor otherwise one doesn’t know which factor has produced a different result. We eventually carried out nineteen tests – from a single radio to a full aircraft container of suitcases. For all but the last test we used an indoor range at Faldingworth so that we could be certain that we had registered all the fragments/materials post explosion.
Despite packing the radio into a suitcase with clothes surrounding it and then other packed suitcases surrounding the prime suitcase, the results of the debris were the same – no sign of the PCB. We did vary the charge weight on some tests as a comparison. The only time we got a small piece of debris from the PCB was Test 15 when we used only 150 grams of explosive, but in this case the overpressure and impulse gauges confirmed that this would be insufficient to cause the plane to break up.
Apart from the lack of any fragment of the PCB, it is also known that epoxy resin board (FR4) despite being flame resistant dissolves at about 200 degrees. Some will argue that tests at ground level do not replicate the event at 31,000 ft. Generally, I would agree, but not in the immediacy of the explosion. The time taken from peak pressure to ambient pressure is less than half a millisecond. This would not have made any difference to the PCB fragmentation.
Our conclusions were that it was virtually impossible for a fragment of 10 x 9.2 x 1.6mm to have survived this explosion. This evidence, of course, was not heard by the Appeal as Megrahi was released in 2009 on compassionate grounds before that stage was reached.
© CITY SECURITY MAGAZINE – SPRING 2021
www.citysecuritymagazine.com
The first series of tests used a single radio, filled with 400 grams of Semtex – the amount deduced from the US tests derived from the necessary break-up of the plane. I have been involved with explosives for over 50 years and thought that when I went into the arena after the first explosion, I would see small bits of radio scattered over the area. To my
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- Are we any nearer the truth? 6
I am not sure where the recent development of Abu Agila Masud, also a Libyan Intelligence officer, supposedly confessing in 2012 to the bombing, leaves us, unless he was working for the PFLP-GC. His likely involvement in the Berlin discotheque bombing in 1986 may support this. But if this is the right connection and the bomb was the fifth not retrieved by the Bundeskriminalamt, then the evidence against Megrahi is unsafe to say the least.
It has always been the case that the US relatives of those who died want closure whereas the UK relatives doggedly led by Jim Swire want the truth.
Aamer Amrar, the lawyer leading the current Megrahi appeal, criticises the timing of this announcement, alleging it was an attempt to ensure the appeal failed. Like the early release of Megrahi himself, is this another attempt to save the embarrassment of a mistrial?
Dr. John Wyatt MBE
For further information contact:
jwyattassociates@live.co.uk
PHOTO INDEX
1. Test suitcase filled as Prime (exact replica of actual bomb suitcase)
2. Suitcase showing Toshiba radio in box
3. Explosive and PCB hidden in radio
4. Prime suitcase containing exact replica radio and clothes 5. Semtex hidden in battery compartment
6. Result of explosion in aircraft >
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