The Reunion

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Factual: Life Stories

Series which reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history

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The Reunion: The Lockerbie Bombing

The Lockerbie Bombing

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion, The Lockerbie Bombing

The tragic events of the Lockerbie bombing are recalled with Kirsty Wark.

Kirsty Wark brings together the families and emergency workers who were caught up in the tragic events of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Not a single person in Lockerbie forgets where they were on 21 December 1988 – the day which shattered their community.

Shortly after 7pm, while Pan Am Flight 103 was in flight over the Scottish town, it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew. 

Large sections of the aircraft crashed onto the town below, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United Kingdom, as well as the UK's deadliest aviation disaster ever. 

The bombing sparked international outrage. In response the families of the victims campaigned for the perpetrators to be prosecuted.  

In 2003, leader Muammar Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims, although he maintained that he had never given the order for the attack. But doubts about the perpetrator of the crime persist today.

Kirsty Wark was one of the first reporters on the scene in 1988. In an emotional episode of The Reunion, Kirsty brings together the families and emergency workers who were caught up in the tragic events of the Lockerbie bombing.

We hear from Colin Dorrance, who was an eighteen-year-old officer with the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and was one of the first officers on the scene, and Les Gracie, who was a firefighter with Dumfries and Galloway Brigade. Also on the programme are Marjorie McQueen, a local Lockerbie resident, Annie Lareau, a former student at Syracuse University, whose friends were on flight Pan Am 103, and David Wilson, a Lockerbie resident who was a member of the local Council in 1988. 


Producer: Charlotte North
Series Producer: David Prest 
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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