On my way to Edinburgh we drove direction Glasgow along a beautiful landscape all the long of the highway. But then our guide told us that here pieces of the Pan Am Airplane that had crashed on Lockerbie, were spread kilometers wide all over the hills.
Lockerbie is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, it lies approximately 121 km (75 miles) from Glasgow. The town came to international attention in December 1988 when the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed there following a terrorist bomb attack aboard the flight.
Lockerbie is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, it lies approximately 121 km (75 miles) from Glasgow. The town came to international attention in December 1988 when the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed there following a terrorist bomb attack aboard the flight.
On December 21, 1988, a suitcase bomb exploded aboard New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103, killing all 259 passengers and crewmembers, along with 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie. Only one suspect, a Libyan intelligence agent, was ever convicted in connection with the attack, and much mystery still surrounds it.
Meanwhile, down below in the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland, residents found themselves directly in the path of falling plane debris. When the fuel-laden wings and a section of the main body crashed into one house, the subsequent explosion created a 47 km (155 foot) long crater and sent a fireball shooting up into the sky. One policeman compared it later to the mushroom cloud from a miniature atomic bomb. The couple that owned the house died, as did nine neighbors ranging in age from 10 to 82. Homes up to 69 m (75 yards) away lost their roofs, and those even further from the blast had their doors and windows shattered. Pieces of the plane came down elsewhere in Lockerbie as well, causing dozens of fires to break out.
So that had been apparently the first attack and that in 1988 ! I had completely forgotten, so had the others in my bus. But then some of them remembered a bit and one had even been in Lockerbie.
Besides a memorial and a yearly Remembrance ceremony there is no trace anymore of this terrible incident at least that was what I have been told.
A little rest before the road to Glasgow
Near Lockerbie
Such beautiful Landscapes
Pictures from Internet
Thursday, September 01, 2016
LOCKERBIE - SCOTLAND
Posted by Gattina at Thursday, September 01, 2016
travel, vacation, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, Turkey, Aircrash PanAm, Lockerbie
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5 comments:
I can remember it well, including the convicted person who was gaoled being allowed to return to his country as he had a terminal cancer. I think he did eventually die, but it took a long time. Ok, I just checked. He was released in 2009 but did not die until 2012.
Hi Gattina - I've never been - .. but have driven through and the landscape is beautiful - just a pity your trip wasn't a little more summery! It was cold up there ... Hilary
In 1988 I had just married Jack. In April of that year. In August we took a trip to England and Scotland to see his family there and introduce me, the new bride. We got up to Dumfries and we were looking for our road on a map to go to the bed and breakfast where we had reservations.
I was not an ace map reader back then, and Jack pulled over at this intersection, where we had an enormous argument. We were there for quite some time, and we both kept referencing the signs there.
Flash forward to December 21, 1988.
Jack was working (he was a pilot for Pan Am and had been for nearly 25 years), and I was doing errands around town. I was listening to the radio in the car and a news tease came on "PAN AM JET CRASHES, DETAILS IN A MOMENT".
I drove my car home so fast, (expecting a call, no cell phones then!)
I got home turned on our large satellite dish and saw the raw feed coming in from Scotland. I recognized the intersection! I knew it was where we had that terrible argument! Then I saw the plane. Including the nose cone cockpit of the 747. I knew it was not Jack who was in Barbados that day on an Airbus 300.
The phone rang shortly after and it was Jack telling me he was OK. He said he wouldn't be home that night as it was just crazy in New York!
And then the phone rang the rest of the day, with friends trying to find out if Jack was alright.
Sadly, we lost many friends that day, including the Captain of the flight, who was a personal friend of Jacks.
I remember it well. What a terrible disaster.
i remember reading about it of course, so terribly sad. Seeing something like this really makes it more real -- even so long after the fact doesn't it?
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