After the Sky Fell on Lockerbie: Part Two | Documentary

After the Sky Fell on Lockerbie: Part Two | Documentary

we had no clue what the hell was going on and we were very pissed off PanAm jumbo jet with 258 people on board first pictures from the devastated town of lockerby both Scotland and England were strewn with wreckage the explosive leaves no there no indication that there was anything out of the norm of this aircraft this evening ATT 10 sh they were too afraid because of the ongoing threat of Gaddafi wanting to bomb him American Plan what isn’t in doubt is that David Cameron shares many of the same views on the value of intervention as Tony Blair the question what is it going to mean for us in the future yeah it’s just [Applause] complicated how could this happen why wasn’t more done felt like we were reliving this again open it up I feel like I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to find a book about somebody who’s walked through grief like this like some sort of resource and I haven’t and someone said to me once like maybe that’s because you’re supposed to do that like grief is real even when you are walking through grieving somebody you never got to know I was 11 months old when my mom died and when you know my first baby turned 11 months like that was hard I’m going to cry thinking about it um just to realize like that’s how old I was when she died like I was I was baby B but like I can’t imagine like being ripped out of my son’s life too and like all that I would have missed like it’s so sad it’s it’s tragic so sorry now I’m crying it was my grandfather my uncle and my mom they all went to London for it’s a four or 5 day trip but I believe it was actually supposed to be him and my grandmother that were going to go on the trip together but she had had a heart attack that summer previous and so my mom spent a lot of time taking care of her so as a thank you gift my grandfather invited her and then my uncle just decided to go along with them for this little little Adventure I like vividly remember looking at myself in the mirror and I I look just like her and it like kind of kind of scared me a little bit cuz it’s you you know I have so much of this person in me that I don’t even know plane landed in the field beside the [Music] church 800 square miles of both Scotland and England were strewn with wreckage each tiny piece a potentially key piece of evidence the Army the police and civilian volunteers painstakingly gathered all the debris and it’s from these fragments the prosecution will build its case against the two Libyan accused who deny any involvement in the destruction of PanAm 103 forensic test established that the bomb was hidden in a tashiba radio cassette player concealed under clothes in a suitcase the investigation proved wide ranging and theor is abundant 11 years on and the tears are still flowing in as the relatives of the victims of lockerby arrive finally for tomorrow’s trial I may have the be able to see these guys go to jail and live long enough to see him get out and that’s not Justice it’s like no doubt that they were guilty I don’t know what they were thinking the lawyers didn’t they didn’t have a defense they just asked questions but they didn’t right didn’t put up any any defense of their own right they just thought they get off for some magical reason and they didn’t outside many said they found the guilty verdict quite overwhelming we all heed side relief and we all have held each other’s hands and we HED and you know but there’s no noise in the court and just a gasp exactly how Al mrai managed to smuggle a bomb through Malta Airport has never been explained but the judges were satisfied that he did no wonder this trial has taken its toll these people have spent 12 years waiting for explanations 12 years praying for justice uh this man was found guilty of murdering 270 people uh 20 years uh is less than a month per victim and uh somehow that doesn’t sit right with me mcgi’s brother gestured as he left court the relatives are left with a culprit but not the whole truth this judgment makes clear that mcrai wasn’t alone the other men who planned this crime are still free tonight it’s highly unlikely they will ever be caught [Music] it was all over the news I mean at least in the United States uh you couldn’t turn the channel and not see a talk show uh interview a radio show uh and I was on one of them I mean I um Theo’s parents asked me to go to London and be interviewed by a Diane Sawyer on Prime Time live and I did that because I was very guilty at the time and I would have done anything I don’t know if I would have done that today because I did feel like my story was Twisted I know now how to take better care of myself but as a 20-year-old student who’s just been through a tragedy like that I didn’t so I felt um yeah it’s just complicated and it’s important to tell you know like news and it’s important we have news and but there’s just got to be a better way of doing it in the care of the people that you are interviewing did you get any guidance from any government absolutely none absolutely none that to me is one of the positives that has come out of this tragedy because the families created a very solid group to support one another that exists to this day in many ways and lobbied very strongly to the US government to make changes so so many of the ways that you take for granted when you fly in the United States are the result of what the victims of PanAm families did victims of PanAm flight 103 or vpaf 103 is the largest us-based family Organization for the families and friends of those who were killed on flight 103 it has four purposes the first is to seek the truth about this tragedy the second is to support family and friends the third is to advocate for increased safety for travel especially air travel and finally to combat terrorism and support National Security there have been many terrible tragedies like that that do not necessarily wind up with active groups as PanAm 103 vpaf 103 is I think it has in some ways helped in that sense of purpose but also in the sense of camaraderie that we are together in this situation in this tragedy and we can help one another I’m the PanAm 103 archist here at Syracuse University libraries so I have responsibility for the collecting and care of all of our collections that have to do with the disaster we hold over 400 linear feet of material roughly 120 collections that are available for public research everything from investigative photos returned personal effects um that have been donated by victim’s families first-person accounts of the experience in lockerby that night and the beginnings of the investigation all the way through to documentation of the construction of memorials materials about the trial uh legislation for Aviation Security that came out of panm 103 uh so a whole range of materials if it has to do with the disaster there is a woman named Carol Eckersley who discovered in searching for a child that she had given for adoption that he was one of the victims on board the flight and whenever Carol comes she makes a point of coming to the archives and looking at the things that we hold about Ken her [Music] son both of Ken’s adoptive parents passed before Carol you know discovered this information and it’s almost as if they donated these things for her thinking that maybe Carol would come looking someday it’s incredibly touching to spend time with her when she’s looking through these artifacts of his childhood hen wanted to be comic book illustrator at one point in his life and we have these fantastic comic books that he created and all of his drawings from school and hers is just one of the more personal stories and interactions that comes to mind it’s always lovely to see them come through the door during remembrance week early on I remember a meeting at a restaurant in northern New Jersey called The Crows Nest I think that was our first official victims group meeting and we had a group of us who tried to help organize the victim’s family members there were parents of loved ones there were spouses there were children and nobody really knew what to do and so we met with congressman and Senators on Capitol Hill and I can remember going with my mother um to meet with the Senate staffers and everybody would have pictures of in our case my sister Lynn and all the other victims and we just demanded that they listen to us and that they talk about the state of Aviation Security which was our one of our primary concerns as well how could a bomb end up on a plane and blow a an airplane like this out of the sky American 11 climb maintain level 350 American 11 Bost mik Lima how do you hear MMA has you clear American 11 Boston this is Boston I turned American 20 left and I was going to clim he will not respond to me now we have some claims stay quiet and you’ll be okay we’re returning to the airport is he inbound to JFK we we don’t know you don’t know where he is at all he’s being hijacked the Pilot’s having a hard time talking to the I mean we don’t know we don’t know where he’s [Music] going of course when 911 happened here in the United States that became predominantly the story about a terrorist attack as it should but people don’t realize that there was this other incident that happened prior to that that was really the first terrorist attack on American civilians some young people don’t know that this ever happened um so I like I like that it’s brought up so people know that there’s a longer history to this kind of loss and this kind of collateral damage that is created by geopolitics the power of that and how we need to continue to strive to stop that Warfare you know that’s the sun shining through what used to be the World Trade Center all of the victims probably felt like we did we were just shocked and felt like we were reliving this again how could this happen how could terrorists get on to airplanes and hijack them in this manner I think the natural feeling from anybody in our position is why wasn’t more done it was horrifying to see another group of victims die and victim’s family members now have to deal with the horror of the aftermath of tragically losing someone you loved in a senseless act of [Music] violence should we tell him the story you may edit this out or whatever Kathy teski lived at the time in Princeton New Jersey okay she wrote something in their Community paper and she said I am so sorry we failed you [Music] but what she said is we survived we lived we lived through 103 you can live through 911 right and they this one woman and her therapist called her immediately said we’re having a support group meeting in a library in the Jewish Community Center you’ll be there right right so Kathy called us cuz she said there may be people there who lost children and you might come to a meeting the first meeting just to talk to people right so we went there for two and a half years for two and a half years Wednesday I mean we’re the only ones that they can relate to you know and as badly as our government treated us they treated them worse yeah the stories they would tell would be heartbreaking yeah Bob did a lot of work on uh Aviation Security and so forth especially in the beginning the problem was that the airlines didn’t want to pay for security they needed to have Pilots they needed to have flight attendants they need to have gas they needed those things but they didn’t need the security fly so they tried to save money on that they dragg their feet on a lot of stuff could have been [Music] prevented at this point in time from the family members that I have the privilege of knowing they’ve become quite Savvy I think and and have been really helpful to other families and communities and groups who have experienced subsequent high-profile disasters or traumas so whether that be Oklahoma City tww 9/11 they’ve taken that experience and and their trauma and what they learned and are are passing it on to others who unfortunately are going to have to go through [Music] [Music] that but does that mean leader Gaddafi does that mean supporting people who place bombs and who kill and name innocent people we we are not responsible about this means who would have believed it Libya and Britain Gaddafi and Blair shoulder to shoulder in the war on terror deals done today with shell for gas exploration with British Aerospace to build an airport one man who tried to sponsor terrorism in Britain another who condemns it at every step but today they’re United Al-Qaeda a common enemy proof once again that my enemy’s enemy is my friend the lockerby bomber was not in court today to give up his fight to prove his innocence his terminal prostate cancer now worsened considerably said his Barrister his prognosis extremely limited as soon as news broke last week that he might be released on compassionate grounds they made it very clear they wanted Al mrai to stay in jail in Scotland and die here in light of the circumstances lead before us we grant that leave the only man to be convicted for the worst terrorist atrocity on British soil had served just eight of the minimum 27 years of his life sentence in greenu prison Al mcrai leaves prison to return to Libya to his family and to die but he leaves behind him unanswered questions about the lockaby bombing and a storm of international protest it was not a political deal they said but compassion Abdul basid al- mrai borded his plane to Tripoli just 2 hours after Scotland’s Justice Minister had confirmed he was to be released it didn’t feel like closure of any kind because I felt like we’re never really going to know all of the chess pieces that were happening between the United States and Libya United States and Iran and all the little pieces that were being moved around that we don’t even know about that some have come to light much of which has come to light by the work of um my brother’s bomber documentary and all of the work that he did to uncover so much it’s going to be long I’m I’m you know I’m hope I’m still alive by the time they get through with this because we’re they we’re talking years years of Discovery we’ve seen the boxes from the floor to the ceiling that the lockerby police are holding with evidence and then they’re going to get evidence from Germany and they’re going to get evidence from Switzerland so and Malta and it’s going to be a long long process the new suspect is Abu AA muhamad massud who’s already behind bars in Libya on separate bomb making charges the US alleges he conspired with a fellow intelligence official Abdul baser Al mrai the only man ever convicted of the bombing is the truth here in Libya are there more answers to come I know that this is a part of the process of Justice I know that because that’s the profession that I chose to be in you know money recovered in a civil lawsuit a conviction and jail term there another way that we in civilized society try to compensate victims and try to address wrongdoing but at the end of the day you have to really come to terms with what what’s happened to you and your family and you have to make a determination about how you’re going to live your life in the wake of that some people were so consumed by anger that they really became not effectively functional and uh they became embittered and kind of you know I think their lives were difficult and probably shortened by what had happened some people poured themselves into writing some people became very spiritual some people tried to help others and so a lot of different reactions to it and mine was to be purposeful to try I think my career as a prosecutor as a outgrowth of what happened to me um I think my um activity with the victims of PanAm group was a certainly a reaction uh from me to want to do something to help [Music] people in October of 88 he wrote a philosophy of Life uh which has been meaningful to people what does he say so analytical tonight feeling old at 20 the Lost Innocence of Youth don’t sit back make the most of everything do all you can while you can life is a one-time deal you can’t ever redo what you missed the first time the opportunity is here stop looking past it December 21st is going to be a great day but so is October 10th be aggressive be fun go crazy there is no reason to hold anything back nothing to lose one of Rick’s remembrance Scholars had a tapto it on her wrist yes so she’s a second lieutenant in the Army in career right now but she’s on her wrist and say nothing to lose right and actually it’s in Rick’s script she um uh she was just really a beautiful beautiful person happy a big personality and uh she used to like to drive my convertible uh when I wasn’t around I found out and once drove it out of gas and had to had to figure out a way to gas it up on the side of the road I wouldn’t call her mischievous so that was a little out of character for her but um she loved life and so it’s uh it’s really not fair that she got robbed of it because she really embraced it but uh I think that she is uh probably looking down on us and hopefully is uh proud of the way we handled uh the circumstances surrounding her leaving us so that’s what I like to think of when I think of her sorry for the emotion three decades later it still comes out I know there’s I don’t know which one it is but my grandfather so my mom’s dad who was with her um when he was stationed in Somalia he was he would write her letters um and I know there’s one specifically and this I want to say these are from like 1986 198 maybe maybe even sooner than that yeah 1986 just about how you know some of the men he was working with their wives wanted to visit but they were too afraid because of the like ongoing threat of Gaddafi wanting to bomb American planes I’m like how ironic that he wrote that in a letter and and two years later Homeland Security please lay your down Homeland Security please lay your down this is a rich man’s War what is a poor man fighting for this is a rich man War what is the poor man figh [Music] [Music] Rich prime minister we just come into Tripoli surrounded by intense security has our involvement here really been worth it yes it has because we helped to get rid of a brutal dictator Colonel Gaddafi who didn’t just brutalize the Libyan people he gave seex to the IRA killing our citizens he helped blow up an airliner over lockaby and his people killed uh Ivon Fletcher on the Streets of London so of course Libya is better off and we are better off because Libya is better off is it difficult is it hard work is it a long road to genuine democracy and a secure country yes of course it is one can debate how successful our involvement in liia has really been but what isn’t in doubt is that David Cameron shares many of the same views on the value of interventionist Tony Blair the question what is it going to mean for us in the future I don’t want history to continue to repeat itself so I do want people to know about this tragedy I felt like people didn’t listen to us here in the United States when we went to Congress and we said if they didn’t do something it was going to happen here and then 9/11 happened because they didn’t listen the fire is still burning but from it has a emerged a stronger Spirit a more unified country a more unified City and a more unified world in the goal of making certain that something like this never happens again we are telling these stories to bring a Humanity to situations like these that are born out of diplomatic War geopolitical situations that we believe don’t affect us but this bomb was being made and this plan was being laid out during my two years in college and I had no idea that this was heading directly for me and for everyone who knew someone on that plane nor did the people on that plane know but all of the geopolitical S decisions and ramifications of one discotech being bombed here and retribution by the US in Libya we watch that every day glazed over on our news and we don’t think it has the possibility of ramming into our lives and huge political and human toll that it can take not just for us but for them too and you don’t understand the human cost until you know the human and I want people to know these people and the students to know the Legacy that they are carrying when they’re a scholar and the importance of not just knowing this person but knowing this person and taking that into the future when they think about situations like this the Legacy award is an award that was started by the victims of PanAm flight 103 one of the recent Scholars works for a US government agency that is very much involved in terrorism prevention there is another scholar a scientist who is actually working on preventing missiles from striking there’s another scholar who was in the military when he was doing his graduate program and has returned to the military for Counter Intelligence so just three examples of that you can become very cynical and very worried that the world is going bad but when I look at the scholars when I look at the young people that I deal with for the through the remembrance in lockerby scholarship I realize there’s a lot of Hope For The World the lockerby scholars are two students from lockerby Academy in Scotland who are selected and come to Syracuse for one year as visiting Scholars the lockery scholars are ambassadors at a very young age and they’re always very good there’s o to and then there’s the 35 like Syracuse remembrance Scholars cuz there’s 35 on the plane so each person that is a remembrance scholar represents one person on the plane the two Locker Scholars each year one represents Andrew mclone and then the other represents um the people in locker that died in the ground in the archives at the library there’s things from each of the students and the and the M Scholars go into the archives and see who they relate to by Student Activities by geography by [Music] whatever with one scholar met us and she started quoting things that Rick wrote 30 years ago word for word I’m saying she remember remember when Rick wrote this I go no I don’t remember but she read every damn thing he wrote [Music] yeah I represent Nicholas Andreas frenos a story of his that really resonates with me is youthfulness he said even though we’re growing you know we still have to keep the kid inside of us just for positivity reasons we both have a love for music and I I’ve gone to explore the magic of Pink Floyd thanks to him as well as the magic of reggee I’m just more than happy to educate others about him I was chosen this year to represent Wendy Lincoln I was also the first student veteran who has ever been selected for the remembered scholarship and I’m super proud of that and very honored and it’s just it’s an amazing experience to remember the victims and to carry on their legacies I want to be for others what I wish I had to look up to during remembrance week which is usually in October the locker Scholars usually in the corners of the room not talking to anybody cuz there’s like 10 times more people in Syracuse University than live in lockerby so they they were kids Claire was a kid but she didn’t know it so Claire was very talkative and very demonstrative and and we connected with her when she left lockerby she and her father were at loggerhead Colin was a policeman he was Scottish and he didn’t talk about nothing he was also the youngest policeman he had just graduated from the uh Academy the police academy I mean I like couple of weeks before the tragedy so there there not a meeting of the minds there but she came home in June the following June and she said to her dad I understand what you went through because I went to the Went to went to the archives I found all stuff talked to these Scholars and they filled me in on what happened now I know and and they started dialoguing and Colin started talking about it mhm first time he ever talked about it so it’s 20 years after the fact but he finally started talking about what happened and you’ve noticed he hasn’t stopped talking about it all the stuff that he kept buried has come out yeah he’s he takes anybody he want one on a tour yeah he thinks he’s the Ambassador which he is uh and he but it’s just been wonderful to see his connection with Syracuse and the way that the town has come to Connected also to [Music] Syracuse as the first victims of the doomed jumbo jet began their journey home to America tonight the town of lockaby turned out to grieve paray attention an honor guard was formed from the policeman who worked so tirelessly to search out the victims the chief cable gave the salute standing in the High Street of the Town PanAm stewardesses struggling with their emotions the so soldiers and the mountain rescue teams with their dogs watched as the final Journey began the people of America and Scotland United in grief we represent the Scottish side of the link between locker and Syracuse and it’s like making something good out of something bad like look back act forward it’s connecting people as well from here and there you know cuz they found a suspect like very recently but it’s still like an incident that is technically ongoing but I think there is still the ability to like move on from that regardless of the fact that it’s an ongoing case and regardless of the fact that they’re on a technical level there isn’t any like closure people have still been able to move on I think that’s important group of cyclists now on Route on their final leg of a journey from lockerby Scotland to Syracuse they left from Central Park in New York City early this morning the group is made up of First Responders who are making the trip to Mark the 30th anniversary of the bombing of PanAm flight 103 the cyclists are First Responders who were called to duty the night of December 21st 1988 when 270 people died in the terrorist bombing including 35 syes University students the cists expected picture is when they arrived in Philadelphia and in fact they are in front of independent Hall where our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution was signed my friends in Syracuse participated in that both of them like me are former United States attorneys they actually both rode certain legs of the trip uh Dan French and Glenn Sue these are kind of dear friends who I met professionally during my career with the justice department both of whom served as United States attorneys like I did before me and so for them to kind of fly over to lockerby with us uh to be there when I went up to the site where my sister’s body was found um it was just a a beautiful and this car pulls up and and Peggy gets out of the passenger seat clutching a photograph of her daughter and a pebble I’m find who that young girl was and uh it was about two years later I knock at the door and uh this lady gentlement say that it was a tennis a mom and dad she I believe you found my daughter I says yes I say that’s your daughter it was there so actually we had a words you know how I’d found her that day she was here give her a pble out the Garden St day you [Music] know we’ve been there and oh we’re just part his family unbelievable you know it’s just really proud of that really proud of that I come out the door here and the young girl was over here when you anniversary every year I’ve got fence out there now always way at wath when not fence always always W the connections in lockerby have made me realize the global community in which this tragedy created and the healing that exists within that even though they live thousands of miles away I feel very close to them and you know my daughter’s about to go to England for school and everyone’s like how are you able to do that aren’t you scared aren’t you worried and I’m the one that’s been pushing her I was like go experience life go meet people from other places go to UNI there where you you can meet people coming from Europe go expand you have this incredible opportunity and it shouldn’t be stopped by my experience and it wasn’t about being there it was about what happened when they tried to go home so it it has no connection it’s about choosing the paths that you want to choose and I’m really happy I chose the fire service is my path you know I’m very lucky very lucky uh yes we have to deal with traumatic things but we sometimes help people which is what we join for we can’t wait to take our kids to lockerby like this is their story too you know you get to know their stories you get to know their families and it just is so much bigger and it it it means more and of course it’s sad it’s tragic these are the people that have gone but it’s like all these people now that are also in my circle and I’m sure it’s so much bigger than I even comprehend the connections that have been made do we have a picture of the Orchid in there no of course I do oh of course I picture everything I know I know last summer several of Brick’s remembrance Scholars came to our house um Maddie came from Michigan Maddie came from upstate new YK she M came from upstate New York right before she went into this act of service and Kylie Kylie we didn’t get to meet in person because she was the covid uh Roman scholar but she came from King of Prussia Maddy and Sari brought this as a gift which was nice uh it bloomed it was beautiful with flowers all dyed over the winter I cut off the stems two new stems came up and we got more flowers and we have more flowers I sent a picture of it saying you know this gift keeps go giving over and over again she was happy oh [Music] this is part of the airplane so you can see actually if you look at it closely the rivits hold the airplane together you know and thickness it and you know quite heavy quite a lot of this all over but it was all taken away but uh but people holding this I keep sick it’s all about to normal [Music] now [Music] for [Music] [Music]

After 35 years, the memories of what happened that direful day remain painful. Hear from first-person and eyewitness accounts, the humanising stories of those who perished. This episode recounts the perplexing and inadequate government response in the aftermath of the incident. The effects of inaction triggered a chain of events felt to this day. From campaigning for increased airport security to creating a lasting legacy for the deceased, this instalment brings humanity back to the forefront. Highlighting the intrinsic link and common bond between two distant communities, never forgetting what brought them together. For many affected, the continued anguish and hope of closure in the investigation lingers, but through unlikely friendships, support and joint action revives faith in a world brought into turmoil. Follow loved ones, the archivist, and first responders in their efforts to forge positivity out of pain, and their quest to stop history from repeating itself.

Filmmakers:
Molly Mason, Brian Aabech, Jordan Hill

Cast:
Zach Blackstock, Ronald Ditchek, Colin Dorrance, Kelly Dubé, Amy Engelhardt, Peter Giesecke, Natasha Gilfillan, Richard Hartunian, Amanda Lalonde, Annie Lareau, Andrew Lightfoot, Lawrence Mason, Eileen Monetti, Robert Monetti, Judy O’rourke Obe, Vanessa St. Oegger, David Cameron, Daniel Cohen, Muammar Gaddafi, Betty Thomas, Zach Blackstock, Ronald Ditchek, Colin Dorrance, Kelly Dubé, Amy Engelhardt, Peter Giesecke, Natasha Gilfillan, Richard Hartunian, Amanda Lalonde, Annie Lareau, Andrew Lightfoot, Lawrence Mason, Eileen Monetti, Robert Monetti, Judy O’rourke Obe, Vanessa St. Oegger, John Glasgow, Father Patrick Keegans, Bill Parr, Reverend Frank Rafter, Barbara Whittle, David Whittle, Hunter Wilson, Ronnie Robertson

After the Sky Fell on Lockerbie: Part Two | Documentary