The Four Tops\u2019 1988 album was called Indestructible<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At 7:03 p.m. (GMT), on Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed, almost instantaneously, 38 minutes after takeoff, when a bomb in the forward cargo area exploded. The plane was at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland. It had taken off from London-Heathrow and was en route to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.<\/p>\n The bomb killed 270 people including citizens from 21 countries. Among the 190 Americans lost were 35 Syracuse University students returning home to the United States for the holidays after a semester studying abroad. Of the 43 victims from the United Kingdom, eleven residents of Lockerbie perished on the ground as fiery debris from the falling aircraft destroyed an entire city block of homes.<\/p>\n The Boeing 747 headed to Detroit from London had at least six would-be passengers that\u00a0were missing from its manifest as it took to the skies on this day in 1988.<\/p>\n The famed Motown R&B group the Four Tops<\/a><\/span><\/strong> were among those scheduled to board Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21 to return to the United States for Christmas after completing their European tour. Original member Duke Fakir recounted the singing group\u2019s fortune at a 2016 London press gathering: \u201cThe producer on Top of The Pops was the reason we didn\u2019t get on that plane.\u201d<\/p>\n Fakir explained: \u201cWe had two shows to do and we were going to record them at the same time. One of them was not going out until New Year\u2019s Eve and the producer didn\u2019t want us to play them at the same time. He wouldn\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n They instead took a later British Airways flight.<\/p>\n Related:<\/strong> The intersection of the Four Tops and Moody Blues<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Punk rock musician John Lydon (professionally known as Johnny Rotten) of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd.<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and his wife, Nora, were booked on the flight, but missed it due to delays. He told the Scottish Sunday Mirror: \u201cWe only missed the flight because Nora hadn\u2019t packed in time. We had a big row and then took the next flight out,\u201d he said. \u201cThe minute we realised what happened, we just looked at each other and almost collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n One musician was not so fortunate when it came to the notorious bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in a terrorist act directly ordered, it was later learned, by Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Al-Gaddafi.<\/p>\n
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\nby Best Classic Bands Staff<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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