1975 LaGuardia Airport bombing

The bomb exploded at approximately 6:33 p.m. in the TWA baggage claim area in the central terminal. Investigators later came to believe the equivalent of 25 sticks of dynamite had been placed in a coin-operated locker located next to the baggage carousels.[2] The bomb blew the lockers apart, sending fragmentation flying across the room; the fragmentation caused all 11 deaths and injured several people.[1] Others were injured by shards of glass broken off the terminal's plate glass windows. The force of the bomb ripped a 10-by-15-foot (3.0 by 4.6 m) hole in the 8-inch (20 cm) reinforced concrete ceiling of the baggage claim area.[3] The subsequent fire in the terminal took over an hour to get under control.

The death toll could have been much worse if the area had not been largely clear of passengers at the time; two flights from Cincinnati and Indianapolis had arrived at 6:00 p.m. and most of the passengers on these flights had already left the area.[3] Most of the dead and injured were airport employees, people waiting for transportation, and limo drivers.[4][5]

One witness, 27-year-old Indianapolis lawyer H. Patrick Callahan, was with his law partner at the time of the bombing. "My law partner and I had gone outside to see where the limo was...We had just gone back and we were leaning against one of those big columns. The people who died were standing next to us," said Callahan. When Callahan awakened, all he could see was dust, and he could not even see his companion, who was two feet away at the time. The blast damaged Callahan's hearing, which did not return for a week. "The bomb appeared to have been placed in the lockers directly adjacent to the carousel that the luggage was on...It was evil," said Callahan.[5]

The bombing was condemned by Pope Paul VI and President Ford. Ford said he was "deeply grieved at the loss of life and injuries".[6] He cut short his vacation in Vail, Colorado, and ordered FAA head John McLucas to look into ways of tightening airport security. Then Mayor of New York City Abraham Beame said the bombing "was the work of maniacs. We will hunt them down."[6]

Airports throughout the country including in Washington, Cleveland, and St. Louis were evacuated after receiving hoax bomb calls.[6]

Queens Chief of Detectives Edwin Dreher led the investigation.[4] Dreher was less than 2 miles (3 km) from LaGuardia investigating a drug-related murder in the Astoria neighborhood when he heard about the bombing. He immediately went to the airport and summoned by radio all available detectives from the five boroughs, launching at the time the largest criminal investigation in the NYPD's history.[4] The investigation included 120 NYPD detectives, 600 FBI agents, ATF agents, and Port Authority investigators, who concluded that the bomb was made of either TNT or plastic explosives and was controlled by household items such as a Westclox alarm clock and an Eveready 6-volt lantern battery.[4] One of the leads suggested was a paroled political activist who had been imprisoned for a previous bombing. The activist's brother had been arrested at LaGuardia on a fraud charge the day before the bombing. Subsequent investigations showed that the activist had an alibi and was ruled out as a suspect.[4]

The investigation may have been hampered by the cleanup operation where victims and debris were removed from the scene.[4]

Following the attack, telephone calls were made to several US airports warning them of further attacks, but these were hoaxes. In addition, an anonymous person called the news agency UPI claiming to be from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and responsibility for the attack. However, the PLO spokesman at the United Nations denied all responsibility and condemned "the dastardly attack against the innocent people at LaGuardia". The PLO believed the call linking it to the bombing was an attempt to sabotage talks at the UN scheduled for January 12 regarding the plight of Palestinians.[3]

Other suggested perpetrators included the Mafia, the F.A.L.N. (who were responsible for the bombing of New York's Fraunces Tavern in January 1975), and the Jewish Defense League, though there was nothing to link these groups to the bombing other than past violence.[1]

Since there was no credible claim of responsibility, investigators concluded the bomb had gone off at the wrong time and that the intent had been for it to detonate either 12 hours earlier or later, when the area would have been nearly clear of people.[4] John Schindler, writing for The Observer, suggested the Yugoslav State Security Administration (UDBA or UDSA) orchestrated the bombing as a false flag attack as part of an ongoing effort to discredit Croatian dissidents.[7]

The Air Transport Association offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the bombers.[8] As of 2016 the crime remained officially unsolved.[9]

• Crime in New York City
• Domestic terrorism in the United States
• List of terrorist incidents in 1975
• List of unsolved murders