I could have written this post about my birthday on Sunday and how I got lovely presents and had a nice day and how it was all about me…but I won’t. A brief conversation with my parents on Sunday brought back the horrors of the Lockerbie disaster so I thought I would dedicate this post to all those who lost their lives.
I remember it vividly. It was the 21st December 1988, I was celebrating my 16th birthday by attending a school Christmas dance in the evening. My parents were enjoying a late vacation in Tenerife returning on Christmas Eve. I only found out about the distaster after the dance when I was picked up by a school friend’s dad. I was sleeping at his house that night and I remember us all sitting glued to the TV for what seemed like hours.
Pan Am flight 103 bound for New York had been blown out of the sky over the small town of Lockerbie. All 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground were killed. The flight departed Heathrow 25 minutes behind schedule – had it been on time, it would have blown up over the sea making the investigation more difficult. Lockerbie was only an hour away from Glasgow, where I lived. I guess that’s why it’s still so fresh in my mind.
My parents returned home on Christmas Eve as planned. Christmas was quiet as I recall. My dad was a constable in Strathclyde Police at the time of the disaster. Lockerbie was in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland but given the scale of the disaster, additional police officers from other divisions were called in to assist in the massive clearup operation that followed. My dad was called away several times in the following weeks.
He never really spoke of what he saw. I was only 16 at the time and don’t really remember it all but one thing I do remember was the night my dad came home after his first visit to Lockerbie. He didn’t utter a word, he had a whisky then straight to the bath.
At this time of year, please just take a minute to remember all those who died and their long suffering families and also those who, like my dad, witnessed horrific scenes during those sad weeks that followed.
