On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 departed from Heathrow Airport in London, en route to New York City. Among the 259 passengers was Walter Leonard Porter from Saint Vincent, who occupied seat 25C.
Porter did not reach New York; within a mere 40 minutes of the flight’s commencement, the aircraft exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, resulting in the tragic loss of all individuals aboard.
Walter, a native of the village of Mesopotamia, was born on March 10, 1953.
Porter completed his primary and secondary education in St. Vincent prior to relocating to the United States with his family in 1969, where he furthered his formal studies and nurtured his early passion for music.
From 1982, a string of hits would come from this talented and versatile composer and entertainer, among them ‘P’tani Mas’ and ‘Celebration.’ He was a resident of Brooklyn at the time of his death.
In 1985, during the Caribbean Entertainment Journal’s Annual Awards Function, Walter was rated best new artist. This would prove to be only one of several awards he would receive. On October 29, 1988, he was honored by his brothers and sisters in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Entertainers Guild of North America on the occasion of its Anniversary Dance celebrating the ninth year of independence for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Walter had founded the Guild in 1985 to promote and foster this culture in North America.
He will be remembered as a kind, giving, and caring individual. He was self-sacrificing, often offering to pass up an opportunity in favor of someone less fortunate.
Until 9/11, Pan Am 103 Bombing was one of the world’s most lethal acts of air terrorism and one of the largest and most complex acts of international terrorism ever investigated by the FBI.
In 1991, the British and American governments charged Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah in the case. Their trial in 2000 was held in Scottish court built for the occasion on a former U.S. military base in the Netherlands. The court acquitted Fhimah and convicted al Megrahi in 2001, sentencing him to life in prison. He was released in 2009 when he was believed near death from cancer, but he survived almost three more years.
The Libyan government formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to the victims’ families.
Agents in the Washington Field Office made repeated trips to countries with a nexus to the plot. And in private briefings, FBI officials steadfastly assured victims’ families the investigation was robust and ongoing. On December 21, 2020—32 years to the day after the terrorist bombing—federal officials charged a third person, Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, in the case. Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi was arrested in 2022.
