Nicola Hall
 Nicola Hall  | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nicola Jane Hall 3 February 1965 Sandton, South Africa |
| Died | 21 December 1988 (Age 23) |
Was her suitcase swapped for the 'bomb bag'? | |
Nicola Jane Hall, aged 23 years, of Sandton, South Africa, was in seat 23K on Pan Am Flight 103 when the aircraft exploded over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew, and 11 Lockerbie residents.[1] Nicola was on her way to spend Christmas with her fiancé in New York.[2]
Contents
Background
To get to London's Heathrow airport, Nicola Hall had travelled overnight from Johannesburg on South African Airways (SAA) Flight 234 with a high-powered apartheid regime delegation which included foreign minister Pik Botha, defence minister Magnus Malan, military intelligence chief General Neels van Tonder and a retinue of 20 people. Because SAA had been banned from flying direct to and landing in the United States (on account of the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act) the South African party were all booked for onward travel by the US carrier Pan Am from London, Heathrow to JFK, New York.
After an eleven-hour flight, SA 234 arrived at Heathrow at 07:20am. It was not publicised at the time but revealed a year later that Pik Botha and only six of his party had travelled to New York on 21 December 1988 (believed to be on the British Airways BA 001 Concorde flight) for the next day's signing ceremony of the Namibia independence agreement at UN headquarters. Magnus Malan, Neels van Tonder and a dozen others returned directly from Heathrow to South Africa.[3]
Unlawful baggage switch
Although Nicola Hall was not in Pik Botha's official party, and was booked on the fatal evening flight Pan Am 103 departing Heathrow at 18:00pm, her suitcase did not accompany her. It had been wrongly transferred at Heathrow to an earlier flight.
At a hearing of the Lockerbie Fatal Accident Inquiry on 30 October 1990, Andrew Hardie QC for the Crown asked Pan Am security officer Michael Jones:
- "Are you aware that Nicola Hall's one item of luggage arrived in New York on December 21?"
Mr Jones said he was and that her baggage must have travelled on Pan Am Flight 101 which left at 11:00 or on Flight 001 which left Heathrow at 13:00.[4]
Bomb bag ingested
At about 20:00pm (GMT) on 20 December 1988, when flight SA234 took off from Johannesburg airport, full details of the flight's passenger manifest were transmitted to South African Airways office in London. This was the cue for a team of Civil Co-operation Bureau operatives, led by the CCB's London-based director Eeben Barlow, to break through a security door at Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport leading to the Interline Baggage Shed from where flights would be loaded the following day.
The CCB team then ingested the primary suitcase (or "bomb bag") through this security door and tagged it for loading on Pan Am Flight 103.
For baggage reconciliation purposes, this Samsonite hardshell primary suitcase would replace Nicola Hall's bag (which would be diverted to Pan Am Flight 101). Thus the "bomb bag" and Bernt Carlsson's grey Presikhaaf hardshell suitcase were the first two pieces of luggage placed in the AVE4041 baggage container by loader/driver John Bedford.[5]
Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies
Morag Kerr wrote:
- "Baggage handler John Bedford’s police statements reveal that when he set up the baggage container AVE4041 to receive luggage for Pan Am 103, there were already two suitcases sitting beside the x-ray machine. He duly placed the cases in the container, upright with the handle(s) up, at the back, to the extreme left of the flat part of the floor. During the afternoon another four or five cases arrived, which he added to the line he had begun, working from left to right. At about quarter past four, as all was quiet, he went off for a tea break with his supervisor Peter Walker.
- "The only luggage which could possibly have arrived in the shed before Bedford set up the container just after two o’clock was Mr Carlsson’s single suitcase and Nicola Hall's suitcase. However, although Miss Hall was booked on Pan Am 103, her suitcase was sent to New York on Pan Am 101 which left at mid-day. Thus the 'bomb bag', having been substituted for Nicola Hall's suitcase, must have been adjacent to Bernt Carlsson's grey Presikhaaf hardshell suitcase. Mr Carlsson’s case was the most severely damaged of the group, but even that was not presented in court as having sustained damage consistent with its having been underneath the bomb, and since it is known to have been placed immediately behind the bomb suitcase within a foot or so of the IED, it would have been expected to be severely damaged in any event."[6]
On 21 December 2013, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing, Morag G Kerr's book "Adequately Explained by Stupidity? Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies" was published.[7]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:South Africa Minister Denies Knowing Of Lockerbie Bomb | Abstract | 12 November 1994 | David Tucker | Having confirmed that South African foreign minister Pik Botha and his 22-strong party had been booked on Pan Am Flight 103 but switched flights after arriving early in London from Johannesburg, spokesman Roland Darroll said: "The minister is flattered by the allegation of near-omniscience." |
References
- ↑ "Find A Grave memorials"
- ↑ "In memory of Nicola Jane Hall"
- ↑ Die Zeit, 21 December 1989
- ↑ "Rules broken on Lockerbie flight", The Guardian, Wednesday October 31 1990
- ↑ "WHY THE LOCKERBIE FLIGHT BOOKING SUBTERFUGE, MR BOTHA?"
- ↑ "Lockerbie - the fundamental error"
- ↑ "Adequately Explained by Stupidity? Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies"
