UTA Flight 772 Memorial

On September 19th, 1989, a Libyan terrorist detonated a suitcase bomb on UTA Flight 772 over the Sahara desert, killing all 170 people on board.

Due to the remote resting place of the wreck, the wreckage is still scattered around the area, a glaring but out-of-sight reminder of the tragedy that happened there. After 18 years of it being nothing but a desert filled with debris, the families of the victims came together and decided to build a monument in one of the most remote places on the globe.

Funded with the 170-million-dollar aid package provided by the Libyan government, trucks were driven almost 44 miles out to transport countless stones to place at the crash site. After two months of grueling work in a brutal climate, the monument was complete. The stones when seen from above resemble a compass with a plane inside it.

Around the edge of the monument are 170 broken mirrors, each mirror symbolizing a victim in the crash. At one end of the monument, one of the plane’s wings stands with its tip pointing up, with a plaque that lists the names of the victims.