Lockerbie bomber dies of cancer at age 60 - 14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro

(RNN) - The only person convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people, has died.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence operative, died Sunday at his home in Tripoli at the age of 60, according to the Associated Press. 

The AP reported his son, Khaled al-Megrahi, confirmed he died in a telephone interview but did not give further details.

Scotland released al-Megrahi from prison on Aug. 20, 2009, on "compassionate grounds" to let him return home to die after he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors believed he had three months to live.

Upon landing in Libya after his release, he was cheered and greeted as a hero.

Al-Megrahi had served eight years of a 27-year minimum sentence, prompting outrage among world leaders and especially the victim's family members.

The anger grew as time passed and the convicted bomber continued to draw breath, though his family members continued to insist he was fighting for his life.  

Pam Am flight 103 was traveling from London to New York when it blew apart over Lockerbie, Scotland and crashed a few days before Christmas, killing all 259 on board. Another 11 people on the ground perished as metal chunks of the plane rained down, some taking out homes.

In all, 189 Americans were on the flight, including many college students returning to the U.S. from study abroad programs.

Debris scattered across 845 square miles of Scottish countryside.

al-Megrahi was indicted in 1991, but Libya refused to turn him and another suspect over for trial, prompting the U.N. to impose sanctions.

The country would finally relent in 1999, and al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalif Fhimah were put on trial at The Hague in the Netherlands. Fhimah was eventually acquitted.  

His family declared him on death's door several times after being released from prison, including in August 2011 when they reported him slipping in and out of a coma. 

He also reportedly underwent a blood transfusion in April 2012.

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