HL Deb 16 March 1989 vol 505 cc445-6WA
Lord Colwyn

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether any inquiries have been made, in the investigation into the Lockerbie tragedy, about the phone call received by US authorities on 5th December, warning of an imminent bomb attack on a Pan American flight from Frankfurt to the USA, and about the radio cassette bomb found by the West German police in October.

The Lord Advocate (Lord Fraser of Carmyllie)

Police officers involved in the Lockerbie investigation have travelled to Helsinki and have made inquiry into the bomb warning in an anonymous telephone call to the US Embassy there in early December. That inquiry has produced no evidence to indicate that the telehpone call had any relevance to the Lockerbie disaster and the investigation into it. The Lockerbie investigation team is not pursuing any current line of inquiry in this regard.

The bomb found in Frankfurt in a raid in October on the flat and car of members of the PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command) contained a barometric timing device indicating that it was intended to sabotage an aircraft. The German police are still holding some members of the PFLP-GC. The matter is under investigation in connection with the Lockerbie disaster and I cannot say more at this stage.

There is no evidence of any connection between the Helsinki warning and the bomb found in Frankfurt in October.