From Deborah Moorhouse
The caption on the picture accompanying your article about detecting explosives
(23 October, p 7)
asks if the optical detector described could have
prevented the destruction of Flight 103 over Lockerbie. The answer to this
question must surely be no.
The bomb which destroyed Flight 103 did not elude conventional detection
techniques. They were simply not used. The suitcase in which the bomb was placed
was not checked. Nor was it matched against the passenger manifest, which simple
procedure might have uncovered the fact that the supposed owner of the suitcase
was not on the flight.
It does not matter how sophisticated the techniques available to detect
explosives are if those techniques are not used. Sadly, the human failures which
helped human malice to destroy Flight 103 meant that no detector, however
efficient, could have saved a single life.
Gillingham, Kent
