LOCKERBIE, Scotland -- Relatives of Americans killed in the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 joined residents of the Scottish town devastated by the accident for a solemn Christmas service Sunday a few hundred yards from where the main wreckage of the jumbo jet plunged to Earth.
A force of more than 600 soldiers, police and volunteers continued their search of rough terrain in bad weather Sunday, looking for more remains and clues to the cause of Wednesday's crash. Debris from the plane has been found up to 70 miles away from where the bulk of the wreckage landed.
The searchers took a short break for a mournful Christmas lunch with the Rev. Patrick Keegan, a Catholic priest whose home was demolished in the crash and who helped lead a special service for relatives of the victims.
Police spokesman Angus Kennedy said it will take at least 10 days to identify the 239 bodies that have been recovered so far. All 258 people aboard Flight 103 were killed when the Boeing 747 broke apart at 31,000 feet and fell over Lockerbie. One town resident was killed on the ground and 10 others were missing and feared dead.
Kennedy told a news conference the identification task was being performed by Edinburgh pathologist Anthony Busuttil and a team of doctors working nearly 15 hours a day at two makeshift mortuaries, one of them at the town hall.
Kennedy said the task was complicated by the fact that local dead are mixed with victims from the aircraft and many of the bodies were badly disfigured.
About 10 of the 30 American relatives who traveled to Lockerbie after the crash joined hundreds of townspeople Sunday for a somber Christmas service led by Bishop Maurice Taylor of the Scottish diocese of Galloway.
'If the word 'Lockerbie' will be associated with this terrible tragedy, it will also be spoken of with admiration and gratitude because of the example of its people,' Taylor told the hushed congregation at Holy Trinity Church, a few hundred yards from where the main wreckage gouged a crater in the ground. Seven members of the Holy Trinity parish were among the missing.
In one of the mass's most poignant moments, Taylor prayed for forgiveness for 'those who may have been in any way responsible' for the air disaster, the worst in British history.
Investigators seeking the cause of the crash have focused increasingly on the possibility of sabotage, but have uncovered few clues.
A top FBI official said Sunday investigators have determined that a bomb threat against Pan Am flights telephoned to the U.S. Embassy in Finland Dec. 5 -- a call that to a federal advisoryy posted at the American Embassy in Moscow -- had no connection to the disaster.
'The call itself has been totally discredited,' FBI Executive Assistant Director Oliver Revell said on the CBS news program 'Face The Nation.'
Revell also denied reports that the CIA's station chief in Beirut was among the passengers killed in the explosion and crash of Flight 103 on a flight from London to New York.
'I read a report this morning in the news that he was (on board),' Revell said. 'In fact, he was not. We cannot comment on intelligence community personnel, but I am authorized to say that the station chief from Beirut was not on that aircraft.'
The town of Lockerbie was unusually quiet and dim for a Scottish community on Christmas Day, as families refrained from traditional visits to hotels for celebrations and put away their holiday decorations.
'This is a pretty tight little community that has had the heart taken out of it,' Kennedy said.
Christmas Eve did bring a small measure of solace. Six town residents previously listed as missing were found to be alive Saturday - two in Spain and four in other parts of Britain, all of them away for the Christmas holiday.
At the Lockerbie town hall, the Christmas tree was removed and memorial wreaths with poignant messages were posted along with condolences from Pope John Paul II, Prince Charles and Princess Diana and President Reagan.
One message, from a passenger on the Frankfurt-to-London leg of the flight, was signed 'Chas' and addressed to 'the little girl in the red dress who lies here and who made my flight from Frankfurt such fun.'
'You did not deserve this,' the message said. 'God bless.'
