AGILE GENIE

The origin of the mission was the so-called “Lockerbie case”: the name derives from the Scottish town above which, on 21st December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded while flying between Frankfurt and New York. 270 people died in the plane crash; the majority of them (189) were US nationals.

After three years of joint investigations, on 13 November 1991, the Dumfries and Galloway Police and the FBI accused Abd el-Basset Ali al-Megrahi, Libyan intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Airways, and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, head of Libyan Airways at Malta International Airport, of the attack.

Following on from the previous Resolution (731), the Security Council issued Resolution 748 (1993) on 31 March in which, regretting the lack of response by the Libyan Government to the demands made by the international community, it called on all States to impose a ban on air traffic to and from Libya, to impose an embargo on trade in arms and components for the airline industry and to take diplomatic measures against Libyan representations.

Following the UN air embargo imposed on Libya, NATO AWACs were mandated to establish two separate orbits to monitor the central Mediterranean airspace. The main aim of the operation was air and ground surveillance.

NATO aircrafts performed a total of 36 missions, accumulating a total of 2336 flying hours.