It was mostly forgotten in time and overshadowed by 9/11. Thirty-five years later, the case remains unsolved.
It happened on December 29, 1975. A bomb with an equivalent force of 25 sticks of dynamite had been placed in a locker adjacent to a luggage carousel.
At 6:30 pm, as LaGuardia bustled with travelers, the bomb went off, collapsing the floor and ceiling and hurling shrapnel from the lockers into the air.
Eleven people were killed, mostly by shrapnel wounds, and 79 injured.
So who could have been responsible? Investigators initially suspected the Puerto Rican separatist group FALN, which took credit for the lethal bombing at Fraunces Tavern earlier that year.
The PLO and JDL were also on the short list. But nothing led police back to these groups.
Then in 1976, after a hijacking from LaGuardia by a Croatian nationalist, investigators thought they finally had a suspect.
But after the hijacker was arrested in Paris, he didn’t take responsibility. Law enforcement officials consider him the strongest possible suspect, but to this day, he maintains his innocence.
Tags: bomb and LaGuardia Airport, bombings in New York City, FALN, Fraunces Tavern bombing, LaGuardia Christmas Bombing 1975, New York City crime 1970s, New York City in 1975, NYC bombings
September 14, 2011 at 6:26 pm |
I was flying from West Germany to Lexington KY that day. I was at a bar close to the TWA Terminal that morning then flew to Pittsburg and on to Lexington. I cannot remember the carrier, maybe Allegheny, regardless I was wondering if you had access to what time of day my flight left? I am pretty sure it was morning. Never heard from any Law Enforcement about it either.
This has always bothered me and I hope it is still being investigated. I don’t remember anything now and could not place anything out of the ordinary that morning right after I heard of it.
I did run into a fellow soldier from my hometown of Campbellsville KY at that terminal and had also met my Army room mate flying back to Germany earlier at Charles De Gaulle Airport. Those 2 incidents were weird coincidences but understandable.
Trying to remember my life and experiences and never was able to figure this one out.
Anyone else there that sad day?
December 25, 2011 at 8:46 pm |
I was at the 75 Bombing, I was shooting spot news at the time, I think that we were actually in route to a babysitter homicide at the time of the job. I can remember the FDNY box 37 being transmitted and we were there. A photo of myself wound up in either the Post or Daily News I was helping someone into th eback of an ambulance had a new swade jacket on at the time and it was covered in blood. I would guess the Post used the photo… I still can not find it. Kevin D
January 5, 2012 at 6:57 pm |
[...] years ago that killed 11 & injured 79 at LGA (and, mostly forgotten & seldom mentioned): http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.co…-bomb-of-1975/ This morning, coming out of our nearby Home Depot and into the nearly empty parking lot, [...]
August 24, 2012 at 4:39 am |
I too was there. I had just arrived on a flight from Buffalo and was on the stairwell down to the lower concourse when I felt a huge thud.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs a wild eyed employee was hustling everyone outside and away from the building. He kept yelling ‘Bomba!” Unbelievably, when I stepped outside into the panicky crowd and frigid night I ran into a dear friend who’d just arrived at the airport to take a flight out. We wound up walking out of the airport on the overpass to the other side of the expressway and found ourselves at the bar of the Travelers Inn watching it all on television.
September 10, 2012 at 2:39 am |
I’m one of those people that have premonitions and felt immensely uncomfortable prior to our departure from CA. I felt like something was going to happen. My husband and co-workers and spouses all met at the TWA baggage claim area, I think it was around 4:30 or 5:00 ? We were driven to Sterling Forrest Conference Center and shortly after the announcement of the bombing came on the news.
It was horrible. We were re-routed back through JFK airport when we departed NY. I have never forgotten what happened and always wondered if they ever got the culprit. I guess not.
December 4, 2012 at 8:56 am |
I had just got on the highway home, heard the news on the radio. Had just been there! Missed me by only a few minutes.
December 13, 2012 at 9:58 am |
To this day, I will never forget the Laguardia bombing. I was 16 at the time the bomb went off. My great-aunt, Edythe Bull was one of the 11 people killed that fateful day. Even though we may never find the culprit who set off the bomb, God will. And then watch out!
April 16, 2013 at 12:44 am |
My Dad and I were there that day and had arrived on Delta whose lockers were back to back with TWA. We had just left the airport and it left quite an impression on a 16 year old kid. What a difference a few minutes makes….
April 16, 2013 at 5:00 am |
[...] There has been a number of these bombings in recent years. The 9/11 disaster was so horrific it over shadowed that news. In 1975 the New York Laquardia Airport bombing was worse than todays incident. That was almost 40 years ago and has never been solved. http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/the-laguardia-airport-christmas-bomb-of-1975/ [...]
April 17, 2013 at 12:12 pm |
LaGuardia Bombing of 1975
Christmas of ’75 my Dad & i traveled to the Canary Islands via a TWA charter plane, I was 16. We returned the evening of Dec 29 at LaGuardia, cleared customs without incident and made our way though the terminal to a yellow cab. The cab had no more than pulled away from the curb when the bomb went off behind us. Father encouraged the driver to move on, I don’t think it took too much to get the cabby out of there. We listened to chatter on the cabby’s radio the whole drive to the city. The bombing put a damper on our New Year in NYC, as it did for so many families. Its amazing its still unsolved. May Peace be with all those who suffer.
April 17, 2013 at 1:56 pm |
My family and I were there 24 hours before the bombing.
The waiting area was small. I remember the lockers facing a short stairway a short distance from the seating area.
April 18, 2013 at 11:31 am |
The NRA lobbied to not add taggants to gunpowder and ammonium nitrate. The technology became available right after this bombing. Maybe it could be used now in Boston. In Texas we see what fertilizer will do. A pity.