THE final secrets of the Lockerbie bombing have been revealed - including how TWO celebrities narrowly avoided catching the doomed flight.

Other revelations tell how a little boy was saved by his sister’s Christmas present in the terror attack which shocked Scotland and the world.

9 Pan Am Flight 103 left a giant crater behind when its wreckage crashed into rows of homes in Lockerbie Credit: News UK Ltd

Pan Am Flight 103 was flying from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York on 21 December 1988 when a hidden bomb detonated.

All 259 passengers were killed when the plane exploded 31,000ft over Lockerbie, just 38 minutes after taking off.

The victims, including 35 Syracuse University students returning home for the holidays, were either killed in the explosion or by crashing into the ground below.

Eleven of the town’s residents on the ground were also killed by falling debris, bringing the death toll to 270.

9 Scottish police stand by the wreckage of the doomed flight in a Lockerbie field Credit: Getty Images

9 Houses were completely destroyed and 11 Lockerbie residents were killed as a result of the disaster Credit: Getty - Contributor

9 Cops stand by a fallen piece of debris in a Lockerbie street Credit: PA:Press Association

Following a three year investigation by local police and the FBI Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was eventually convicted and jailed for the attack, in 2001.

However, the Scottish government released him back to his homeland on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Now light can finally be shed on how people narrowly escaped death and on the lives of those trapped on board, reports Daily Mail.

Stars miss doomed flight

Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten was due to take the Pan Am flight but missed it because his wife Nora took too long to pack.

Rotten, real name John Lydon, had booked two first class tickets on the plane for a romantic holiday – but thankfully, the couple never made it.

9 Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten and his wife Nora were supposed to be on the doomed flight Credit: Xposure

9 Sex in the City star Kim Cattrall was also supposed to be on the PanAm flight to New York Credit: Getty Images - Getty

He told the Scottish Sunday Mirror: "Nora and I should have been dead. We only missed the flight because Nora hadn't packed in time.

"The minute we realised what happened, we just looked at each other and almost collapsed."

Sex in the City star Kim Cattrall was also supposed to be flying back to the States on Pan Am’s Maid of The Seas.

But she cancelled her booking at the last minute because she had forgotten to buy her mum a teapot from Harrods.

Instead, Kim, just 32 at the time, waited at Heathrow airport for a later flight back to New York.

Christmas present saves boy’s life

Steven Flannigan, 14, lived in Lockerbie with his family but left home on the day of the crash to check on a Christmas present for his little sister Joanne.

Steven was in his friend David’s garage, building the bike for Joanne, when the plane’s remains crashed into his house – killing almost every member of his immediate family.

9 Steven Flannigan , 14, lived in Lockerbie with his family but left home on the day of the crash to check on a Christmas present for his little sister Joanne Credit: Jim Hutchinson

9 A whole row of houses in Lockerbie was wiped out by the devastating terror attack Credit: Getty - Contributor

He would later be awarded £2.1million compensation by the Libyan government.

Sadly Steven died aged just 26, after being hit by a train.

He left three-year-old son Luke, behind.

Steven’s brother David, who was also not at home during the plane disaster, died from a suspected heart attack in Thailand in 1993.

Plane became FIVE blobs on radar

Such was the force of the devastating explosion that the giant 747 was ripped apart 31,000ft in the sky.

Heartbreakingly, some of the 270 killed passengers managed to survive the blast itself and then the lack of oxygen – only to die on impact to the ground.

9 The nose of the plane crashed into a field near Lockerbie - pictured, the remains Credit: Getty - Contributor

But new detail can reveal that when the bomb – made of 450g grams of Semtex plastic explosive stuck into a Toshiba BomBeat cassette player – did detonate the plane was spread into five different blobs on radar.

Bodies were sent crashing to the ground, found in fields, front gardens and on the streets and roads of Lockerbie while 1,000 cops and soldiers carried out a fingertip search of the area – recovering 10,000 items.

Floral tribute to tragic tot in the red dress

Among the victims of the tragedy was three-year-old Suruchi Rattan.

Suruchi was travelling with her mum Garima and little brother Anmol, 2, on their way back from a family wedding in New Delhi.

As the residents of Lockerbie helped with the recovery effort after the blast – a tribute was left at the town hall.

A bouquet of flowers with a note red: “To the little girl in the red dress who made my flight from Frankfurt so much fun: you didn’t deserve this.”

It later emerged that the youngster had entertained a man in the row behind her on the first leg of her journey home - telling him stories about her uncle's wedding.

Tragic Suruchi was found on a hedge eight miles from where the cockpit crashed to the ground.

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Former lorry driver Mark Herridge was among those who had volunteered to search for bodies and can still recall the moment he spotted the tot.

He told the Mirror: “I could see it was a child straight away, a little girl in a red outfit and I had to look away. I had a 10-month-old son at home.

“She was just lying in a hedge, face up, barely a scratch on her.”

Lockerbie aftermath: Aerial footage shows the devastation caused by the 1998 terror attack

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