Pan Am 103 Bombmaker in U.S. Custody; NH Man Piloted Plane

The man who made the bomb that blew Pan Am flight 103 out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, piloted by a New Hampshire man, is now in United States custody.

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was charged in 2020 by the U.S. Department of Justice for his involvement in the bombing that killed 259 on board the Boeing 747 and 11 on the ground including pilot Capt. James MacQuarrie, who lived in Kensington at the time of his death.

Al-Marimi was turned over to the United States from Scotland, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. He will be arraigned in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on a date to be determined, making him the first terrorist in the bombing to appear in an American courtroom.

The DOJ did not disclose how Masud came to be in U.S. custody.

MacQuarrie was a pilot for 32 years and had flown over 4,000 hours in 747s, according to the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation. He became a pilot after serving in the U.S. Navy for three years, and with the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

He was married to his wife Janet, and the father of two children, Michael and Pamela. His son was also a Pan Am pilot.

Stephen John Boland, 20, of Nashua, was also killed in the bombing. He was returning home from a program now called Syracuse University Abroad.

The bombing is the deadliest terrorist attack to take place in the United Kingdom.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH