As the wreckage from Pan Am Flight 103 was being collected from across a small Scottish town, one phrase kept being repeated: "We do not know what happened."
The plane fell from more than 9 kilometres in the air, crashing into the town of Lockerbie and leaving lives, homes and communities in ruins.
The plane, flying from London to New York on December 21, 1988, simply vanished from radar screens. One moment there, gone the next.
As it was falling, the sky lit up, according to local John Glasgow.
"There were no bodies about. I don't think there would be any chance … It went up in a fireball."
Fragments of a circuit board and timer were later found by investigators, and they established a bomb was placed inside a radio in a piece of luggage on the plane.
Authorities confirmed all 259 people on board were killed, along with 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie.
Before the September 11 attacks of 2001, it was the deadliest terror attack in US history, with 190 Americans killed, and remains the deadliest in the United Kingdom.
The Lockerbie victims also included people from 21 different countries.
US and Scottish investigators have accused a total of three Libyan intelligence operatives since 1991.
One has been acquitted, another convicted, and the third now faces trial in the US, which comes more than two decades since the ruling in the first Lockerbie case.
The trial was scheduled to begin in late August but has been delayed after new evidence emerged.
A hearing has now been set for September.
Interview led to clandestine extradition
In 2020, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former explosives expert for Libya's intelligence service, became the latest person charged with the Lockerbie bombing.
A 2012 interview Al-Marimi gave to Libyan law enforcement became a crucial piece of evidence for US and Scottish authorities when they obtained a copy in 2017.
"At long last, this man responsible for killing Americans and many others will be subject to justice for his crimes," former US attorney general William Barr said in 2020.
According to US officials, Al-Marimi admitted to building the bomb, working with others to carry out the attack and that it was ordered by Libyan intelligence.
Two years following the charges, Al-Marimi was taken into US custody.
"The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi is in US custody," a spokesperson for Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said.
US officials did not say how he was detained, but in late 2022 local Libyan media reported he had been kidnapped by armed men from his residence in the country's capital Tripoli.
Who were the other accused terrorists?
Before Al-Marimi, two other Libyan intelligence operatives were charged with conspiracy, murder and the destruction of Pan Am 103 in 1991.
Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi was also the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah was the LAA station manager at Luqa Airport in Malta.
The evidence that linked them to the attack came from a small fragment inside a piece of a shirt, according to the FBI.
The pair faced trial in 2000 by a panel of Scottish judges, in a purpose-built courtroom on a former US military base in the Netherlands called Camp Ziest.
In 2001, Fhimah was acquitted of the charges, while al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison.
He was later released on compassionate grounds in 2009, and died three years later.
In 2002 the Libyan Government offered to pay $US2.7 billion in compensation to victims of the Lockerbie bombing, but tied the payments to lifting US and UN sanctions on the country.
First US Lockerbie trial faces delay
Al-Marimi is set to become the first person accused of the Lockerbie bombing to be tried in a US courtroom.
Jury selection for the trial was scheduled for August 25, but it has now been postponed following a judge's ruling after the emergence of new evidence.
But the nature of the evidence was not specified.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich said the delay was because the defence needed time to "determine how best to defend" this case.
The judge had previously ruled to allow evidence of Al-Marimi's confession, which the defence said was disputed and given under duress.
The prosecution allege the Lockerbie bombing was carried out by Al-Marimi and others under the orders of former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
They also allege he brought a suitcase containing a bomb which was transported from an airport in Malta, and given to his co-conspirators for a flight to Frankfurt in Germany.
According to authorities, the suitcase then travelled from Frankfurt to London, and then it was loaded inside Pan Am flight 103.
Al-Marimi worked within the Libyan intelligence service between 1973 and 2011, according to the prosecution.
The man now in his mid-70s is facing two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death, and if convicted, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Former FBI special agent Dick Marquise, who led the Lockerbie case, said Al-Marimi was known at the time of the initial investigation.
The judge has scheduled a hearing to discuss the status of the case on September 1.
