PA103 - 30 Years - 21 Dec 1988

[ExGrunt]

Tonight at 19:01 will mark 30 years since PA 103 was destroyed above Lockerbie.

At the time I was involved with the effects recovery. Even now after 30 years I can feel the sadness of having to sift through the lives of so many young people who had had their futures cruelly snuffed out.

RIP

EG

[NutLoose]

I was at home on my resettlement a scant minute or so flying time away from ground impact, it was the sound of a lonely siren in the near distance leaving Carlisle followed by another and another until it was a cacophony of sirens as the whole of Carlisle emergency services started up the A74 heading north that I remember the most, having to convince the "kids" in my local not to drive up and watch, then walking home as the first Chinook went over, impressed that they had generated a cab, got the crews in, everything sorted and then ferried all the way up country in literally hours, afterwards talking to a police friend who needed to let out what he saw...


RIP and such a waste for nothing

[rolling20]

I worked in the City a few years later with a woman who was booked on the flight, but decided to go to an Xmas party instead. The story was her parents were at JFK waiting for her. She taped the ticket to her bathroom cabinet. If she got up having had a bad previous day/ night, it didn't matter when she saw the ticket.

[condor17]

Not long home after a double shuttle to GLA . News on and instantly shocked , as bad as 911 . I'd just flown that route twice just hours earlier , and to lose some of our crew family in that manner hurts . There but for the grace of God .... RIP

rgds condor .

[KPax]

Got called in to the RCC at Pitreavie about 5 minutes after the first call, a very long night.

[stevef]

I was flying spanner/gash cabin hand on a chartered HS748 flying Spanish politicians up to Carlisle that afternoon, We checked into our hotel and went out for the evening. When we came back, the receptionist asked us if we knew anything about the aircraft crash in Lockerbie. No, we hadn't; I don't think any of us had even heard of Lockerbie before. Very sobering news the following morning as it was only about 30 miles away.

[Airbubba]

I was wearing a white hat as a Pan Am pilot in MCO. I was about to deadhead down to MIA to go to work when the gate agent gave me a telex to look at. It said an incident had occurred involving N739PA near Prestwick, more to follow. After the 25-minute flight I went to the crew computer to get the names before they were locked out.

The captain's son was a contemporary of mine and I had worked with several of the flight attendants on the LHR-based crew.

[Skeleton]

I was at Leuchars at the time and involved, enough said. A sickening and needless waste of life. May they RIP.

[Tashengurt]

I recall a hard nosed MRT member at Leuchars struggling to tell us (or not tell us probably more accurately) what he'd experienced there.
Hats off to all those who responded to this and also the other disasters that seemed to be a feature of 80's Christmases.

[matkat]

I was at Leuchars at the time and involved, enough said. A sickening and needless waste of life. May they RIP.
Skelton I was on VASF and was asked by you to release a certain young man to go with you, he came back unrecognisable I called either yourself or indeed whoever answered the call and you came and took him away to spend time with colleagues who had witnessed this with Him.
Sensless waste of so many lives and not to forget the stress to those that attended the scene.

[HAS59]

I lead the team doing the initial air photo analysis of the scene. The images will never fade. Even now 30 years on and the truth of who did what and why is still not out there. RIP to those involved in all of it. The RAF was at its best over those few days giving support to the civil powers.

[Dave Sharpe]

Slightly off track but I did one of the Flight Safety courses that showed us the reassembled airframe of this aircraft in the AIB hanger and I was just taken aback by the hard work that had been done under very difficult conditions to collect every bit of debris they could find which would identify what exactly had happened to this aircraft -and the skill of the AIB team in the putting the airframe together from the debris found ---

[ExGrunt]

I was wearing a white hat as a Pan Am pilot in MCO. I was about to deadhead down to MIA to go to work when the gate agent gave me a telex to look at. It said an incident had occurred involving N739PA near Prestwick, more to follow. After the 25-minute flight I went to the crew computer to get the names before they were locked out.

The captain's son was a contemporary of mine and I had worked with several of the flight attendants on the LHR-based crew.

One of the many poignant items we recovered was a blood-stained flight attendant's scarf. I'm sorry for your loss.

EG

[Airbubba]

One of the many poignant items we recovered was a blood-stained flight attendant's scarf. I'm sorry for your loss.

EG

Thanks, more on the downing of Pan Am 103 in this Syracuse University archive: https://panam103.syr.edu/

[Less Hair]

Media reports in Germany suggest that the Scottish Crown Office now investigates up to 20 former east german secret police (Stasi) officers for possible participation in the bomb attack back then.

(german)
https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Half-die-Stasi-beim-Lockerbie-Attentat-article20918956.html

According to the report five former Stasi-officers have been formally heard about the events as "witnesses" in Germany within the last half year.
It sounds like Stasi might have been more envolved than known and possibly falsified traces to divert all the blame to Libya as the main suspect behind it and not Stasi itself. Not many details or hard facts available yet. But looks like an ongoing investigation so no surprise.