Episode 16: Lockerbie

On December 21, 1988, 270 people were killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, including 190 Americans.

The iconic image of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack was the aircraft's nose section which came to rest on its side with the plane's name Clipper Maid of the Seas mostly visible.

When Flight 103 came down on the sleepy town of Lockerbie, Scotland just after 7 pm, the hardest hit street was Sherwood Crescent, where all 11 on-the-ground casualties were. The wings and part of the fuselage carved out a crater approximately 40 feet by 150 feet. All but one house on that street was destroyed in either the initial impact of the subsequent fires from the 200,000 pounds of jet fuel.

Though we now know this attack was ordered by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and carried out by no less than three operatives, only one person was ever convicted and served jail time. He only served 10 years of a lifetime sentence but was released on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and has since died.

In December 2020, the United States formally indicted the third accomplice (the second was acquitted in an earlier trial before his participation was confirmed after the fall of the Gaddafi regime), but the current Libyan government has yet to extradite him to the United States for trial.

Arlington National Cemetery's Lockerbie Memorial Carin is located in Section 1 and was dedicated in 1993. Made from 270 sandstone blocks quarried just a few miles from Lockerbie. The chief architect of the project lost his daughter on the flight.

The plaque reads: IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY PEOPLE KILLED IN THE TERRORIST BOMBING OF PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS FLIGHT 103 OVER LOCKERBIE, SCOTLAND 21 DECEMBER 1988 

PRESENTED BY THE LOCKERBIE DISASTER TRUST TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

35 of the victims were students from Syracuse University. The school built the Place of Remembrance to honor their memory, a semi-circular wall with their names carved into it.

Every year, the 35 senior who receive the Remembrance scholarship plan a week of on-campus memorial activities that that begins with a candlelight vigil on Sunday and culminates with a rose laying ceremony on Saturday. This year's remembrance week will run from October 17-23, 2021.