Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270, including eight Marylanders, in 1988 is now in American custody

A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S. custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday.

The arrest of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is a significant milestone in the decades-old investigation into the attack that killed 259 people in the air, including eight Marylanders, and 11 people on the ground. American authorities in December 2020 announced charges against Mas’ud, who was in Libyan custody at the time. Although he is the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the U.S. in connection with the attack, he would be the first to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution.

The New York-bound Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. Citizens from 21 countries were killed. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.

Marylanders Anne Lindsey Otenasek, 21, of Baltimore; George “Geordie” Williams, 24, of Joppatowne; Miriam Luby Wolfe, 20, of Severna Park; Michael Stuart Bernstein, 36, of Bethesda; Jay Joseph Kingham, 44, of Potomac; Karen Elizabeth Noonan, 20, of Potomac; Anita Lynne Reeves, 24, of Laurel; and Louise Ann Rogers, 21, of Olney were killed.

Williams, an Army first lieutenant from Joppatowne and a helicopter crewman, missed his intended flight and boarded Pan Am Flight 103 as a connection on his way home from Germany.

Wolfe, a junior at Syracuse who majored in musical theater and longed to act on Broadway, had graduated from Severna Park High School and was returning home from studying abroad in London. Her mother, Rosemary Mild, wrote a book, Miriam’s Gift, based on her only child’s diaries and journals. Otenasek, a junior at Western Maryland College studying social work abroad in London through a Syracuse program, was also traveling home for the holidays.

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