Latest news with #PanAm103
The National
12 hours ago
- Health
- The National
Lockerbie bombing suspect's trial expected to begin in 2026
US prosecutors are expected to request a federal court to set an April 2026 trial date for Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, the Libyan man accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. According to a joint status report seen by The National, federal prosecutors and court-appointed lawyers for Mr Masud, 73, plan to prepare and submit a pretrial schedule after a June 5 hearing. 'Given the complex, international nature of the evidence in this case, that pretrial schedule will have several atypical features,' the report reads. At least three depositions of foreign nationals will have to take place outside the US before the trial begins, the report notes. A court transcript shows that continuing health problems affecting the suspect have been a consistent obstacle in bringing his case to trial. 'I'm sorry to hear about your medical issues,' Judge Dabney Friedrich said to Mr Masud, who was observing the hearing by video conference with the assistance of a translator. She asked for Mr Masud's lawyers to provide updates about his health condition in the weeks ahead. 'We will certainly endeavour to provide the court whatever updates we can regarding the medical appointments, but it may be helpful to have an update from the marshals as well since they are the direct communicators with the medical providers,' said Whitney Minter, one of the Lockerbie suspect's court-appointed lawyers. Parts of the transcript are redacted, obscuring possible details about Mr Masud's health, along with other trial planning discussions and concerns. The unredacted sections show an effort by prosecutors and the federal court to allow victims to listen to the June 5 hearing, along with other court dates in what has become a complex investigation. 'We have the information for the victim group,' said one of the prosecutors, telling the judge that as many of those affected by the tragedy as possible had been notified around the world of the proceedings. The defendant said little at the recent pretrial conference. 'If my lawyers need me, I am available,' he said. In 2023, Mr Masud pleaded not guilty in connection to the 1988 attack, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in UK and US history. Only one other person, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted for the bombing. After his conviction in 2001, Mr Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison, but he was eventually released on compassionate grounds and died in Libya in 2012. In 2003, Libya claimed responsibility for the attack that took down the plane. The US government filed charges against Mr Masud in 2020, but it took more than two years to extradite him from Libya. All 259 people on board perished in the attack and 11 people were killed by falling debris on December 21, 1988, shortly after the Pan Am flight took off from London bound for New York. Of the victims, 190 were American citizens, along with others from the UK, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago.
Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mirror
BBC Breakfast guest in tears during 'difficult' interview on Lockerbie tragedy
BBC Breakfast spoke to the sister of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, with the emotional interview leaving viewers in tears as they said it was 'difficult' to watch A guest on BBC Breakfast was moved to tears during Tuesday's show as she recounted the devastating effect of the Lockerbie disaster on her family. In anticipation of a forthcoming documentary that features the stories of the families and friends of some of the victims of the bombing, it was revealed that her sister Olive was 25 when she purchased a last-minute ticket on Pan Am 103, intending to fly to New York for some Christmas shopping. On 21 December 1988, a bomb detonated in the plane's cargo hold, causing the Boeing 747 to disintegrate at 31,000ft. All 259 passengers and crew on board were killed, along with 11 people in Lockerbie who died when the plane crashed into their homes. Olive's body was among the first to be recovered, and her family has now spoken about how "hard" it was to come to terms with her death. Her sister Donna joined Sally Nugent and Jon Kay on BBC Breakfast, expressing her ongoing distress years after the event. Donna remembered the last time she waved goodbye to her sister before her flight, describing Olive as a "lively, vibrant and loud" woman. "When she waved goodbye to me, I thought that was it, and I'd hear from her when she got back," Donna shared. She recalled being instructed to meet her sister at a rendezvous point, assuming Olive would have missed her flight or decided against going. "What might have been if timings had worked out differently," Jon said. Visibly moved, Donna recounted the emotional journey back to Lockerbie and shared, "What was amazing about it as well was when we got there, the people of Lockerbie, the dedication they had put into helping strangers that they don't know... the love and the care they put into even putting up a room full of collages and memories, there's so much that happened behind the scenes." As she comforted her mother, Donna's daughter stressed the significance of documenting their story, noting "remembering the victims, because obviously there's a lot of other stories that come through in other documentaries but this one was simply focusing on Olive and other victims of the tragedy". Further explaining the documentary's purpose, she emphasised: "It's important that they're remembered because they were people, and they had stories and goals, and families who loved them." The heart-wrenching interview eventually brought Donna to tears as she spoke of being told where her sister's body had been found, moving viewers to deem the segment "difficult" watching. Comments from affected viewers streamed in, with one asking: "Why are they putting this poor woman through this? She's clearly not ready to talk about this." Another echoed the sentiment, labelling it a "difficult interview," while a third called it "sad". One person said: "37 years on and she still can't talk about it." BBC Breakfast airs weekdays starting at 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.
The National
a day ago
- Health
- The National
Lockerbie suspect's trial expected to begin in 2026
US prosecutors are expected to request a federal court to set an April 2026 trial date for Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, the Libyan man accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. According to a joint status report seen by The National, federal prosecutors and court-appointed lawyers for Mr Masud, 73, plan to prepare and submit a pretrial schedule after a June 5 hearing. 'Given the complex, international nature of the evidence in this case, that pretrial schedule will have several atypical features,' the report reads. At least three depositions of foreign nationals will have to take place outside the US before the trial begins, the report notes. A court transcript shows that continuing health problems affecting the suspect have been a consistent obstacle in bringing his case to trial. 'I'm sorry to hear about your medical issues,' Judge Dabney Friedrich said to Mr Masud, who was observing the hearing by video conference with the assistance of a translator. She asked for Mr Masud's lawyers to provide updates about his health condition in the weeks ahead. 'We will certainly endeavour to provide the court whatever updates we can regarding the medical appointments, but it may be helpful to have an update from the marshals as well since they are the direct communicators with the medical providers,' said Whitney Minter, one of the Lockerbie suspect's court-appointed lawyers. Parts of the transcript are redacted, obscuring possible details about Mr Masud's health, along with other trial planning discussions and concerns. The unredacted sections show an effort by prosecutors and the federal court to allow victims to listen to the June 5 hearing, along with other court dates in what has become a complex investigation. 'We have the information for the victim group,' said one of the prosecutors, telling the judge that as many of those affected by the tragedy as possible had been notified around the world of the proceedings. The defendant said little at the recent pretrial conference. 'If my lawyers need me, I am available,' he said. In 2023, Mr Masud pleaded not guilty in connection to the 1988 attack, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in UK and US history. Only one other person, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted for the bombing. After his conviction in 2001, Mr Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison, but he was eventually released on compassionate grounds and died in Libya in 2012. In 2003, Libya claimed responsibility for the attack that took down the plane. The US government filed charges against Mr Masud in 2020, but it took more than two years to extradite him from Libya. All 259 people on board perished in the attack and 11 people were killed by falling debris on December 21, 1988, shortly after the Pan Am flight took off from London bound for New York. Of the victims, 190 were American citizens, along with others from the UK, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Lockerbie from locals' eyes - homes vaporised, bodies in bushes, eerie silence
Pan Am 103 produced the largest crime scene in UK history, covering 845 square miles just over the border as debris and human remains fells out of the sky New BBC drama series, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 has stunned viewers at the shocking events of December 21 1988 and its devastating aftermath. The deadliest terrorist incident to have occurred on British soil hit Lockerbie when a bomb exploded in the cargo area of the plane. All 259 people aboard the plane died and 11 on the ground lost their lives on December 21. The debris covered 845 square miles- more than 2,000 square km, spread over the border into Northumbria creating the largest crime scene in UK history. Boeing 747 Clipper Maid Of The Seas had taken off from Heathrow and was less than two hours into its flight to New York and Detroit when passengers perished within seconds of the blast over Lockerbie, which is located in Dumfries and Galloway, south-western Scotland. It dramatizes the Scots-US investigation into the attack, the effect it had on victims' families and how it impacted Lockerbie's locals. The drama also highlights that lobbying by UK and US-based family groups resulted in "key reforms, from strengthening travel warning systems and tighter baggage screening, to people-centred responses to major disasters". So what happened that fateful a day when residents of a small Scottish town prepared for the holiday time with loved ones, while Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in the skies above them? That evening at around 7.10 pm, resident Donald Bogie heard a sound that became so loud that he said it became "almost unbearable". Then suddenly it went eerily quiet. He ran out of his house and saw flames. The streets were on fire, lawns were on fire, homes were on fire. Bodies lay everywhere. Over in a field lay the body of a young man who was only wearing his underpants because the rest of his clothes had been torn off during the fall. Beside him was an undamaged bottle of Chivas Regal. Farmer Kate Anderson told the Mirror how the cockpit of Pan Am flight 103, landed 50 yards from her remote cottage. The bodies of Captain James Bruce MacQuarrie, his copilot and the flight engineer were found still strapped into their seats. There were 98 bodies that rained on her land that evening. Speaking in 2018 on how she and other locals tried to help in the horrifying aftermath she said: "It felt like you were living in a film. Your human resources kicked in. You did what you could to help. 'There were families who were devastated. The poor soldiers who spend Christmas day picking up bits of bodies – many of them suffered afterwards,' Recalling the start of the nightmare, she described how it was ferociously windy: 'It was blowing a hoolie that night. We heard an explosion. We later realised it was the sound of the plane hitting Lockerbie, " she remembers. 'We could hear the bang from three miles away and could see the mushroom from the explosion. We knew it was fuel. I thought it might have been a petrol station. We could hear something whistling, so we went inside. 'There was another bang, and the electricity went off. We could see something white in our field when we went back outside. It was the cockpit, and it was about 50 yards from our house.' Kate and her husband Kevin approached the shattered plane. She said: 'It was silent. There was no sign of life. We looked inside, and there were several bodies in there, but you just knew that none of them were alive. 'There were bodies all over our farm. We later found out 98 bodies landed in our farm that night.' Local police officer Michael Gordon was on the phone chatting to a friend when he heard a strange rumbling sound outside. In a 2003 television interview, Michael recalled: "The weather that night was a bit wild, there was a strong wind. From my window, I could see Lockerbie as my house sits up on a hill and I heard this noise above the noise of the wind.." He at first assumed it was a jet fighter plane as the military were known to practice in the area. He then described how he saw objects falling from the sky before seeing a fireball hurtling straight towards Lockerbie. "When it hit, I could hear the most horrendous explosion, and I could hear the tiles on the roof of my house lifting. " The explosion cut all telephone lines and the water supply. The fire department was able to put out all the fires within seven and a half hours using milk wagons, which were quickly filled with water and driven to the many burning pieces of wreckage. Michael went out to help find survivors. He recalled: "Everything was on fire. I was jumping around - it was difficult to move without feeling my trousers burning." In the morning light, the full horror of what happened could be seen clearly. On the southern edge of the town was a huge crater with 1500 tonnes of rock and earth that had been blasted out of the ground. Several houses on the ground in the direct path of the fireball Michael saw had been vaporised. The main plane wreckage fell on Lockerbie - both wings and its midsection - 150 tonnes of machine descending up to 500 knots speed to create the crater. Around it, there was debris and human remains. Elsewhere In the ruins of homes, people searched for the bodies that fell out of the sky. One shellshocked resident told one of the many TV crews that descended onto the quiet town that her street "looked like a scene out of hell." The mid-section of the Boeing 747 fell from the sky onto Ella Ramsden's home in Park Place. In astonishing luck the 60-year-old survived the crash - as she ran carrying her Jack Russell to the kitchen - the only part of her home that remained standing. Ella's dog Cara, her budgie, and even her pet goldfish survived. Ella and Cara were pulled out of the window in her kitchen door that she had broken with a frying pan. The next day, the budgie was found fluttering about the ruins and the goldfish were still swimming in their tank amid the rubble. Ella had been tidying up after a visit by her son and two young grandsons when she heard a deafening noise and flashes of red. Speaking to the Mirror in 1998 on the ten-year anniversary of the tragedy Ella said: "The house started to come in over me. Suddenly the stars were above me. I smashed a window in the kitchen and screamed for help. People ran round to the front, but there was no front any more. "For me, it was only losing a house. For so many others it was a loss beyond imagination." Ella's family was grateful she lived for another 22 years after Lockerbie. She died in 2010. Over 60 bodies were reportedly recovered from Ella's house and garden. It was reported that among them was US passenger Lorraine Buser - who was found sat strapped to plane seat 35C on the remains of the roof. Lorraine, who was pregnant, was one of three members of an American family who died. There were 12 children under the age of 10 who perished that night. The youngest fatality was nine weeks old. Normally, only four policemen worked in the Lockerbie region, but by Thursday morning there were 1,100 working alongside 1,000 soldiers, firemen and volunteers. The youngest police officer, Colin Dorrance, then 18, saw a farmer driving a pick-up truck carrying debris from Pan Am 103 and, in the front seat, was the body of a young girl. "It was the body of a child he'd found in a field at the back of his farm, " he recalled in a 2018 interview. "It was a young child under the age of five. It looked as though they were asleep; it wasn't obviously injured, and it was just a shock to realise it was a passenger from Pan Am 103. "At the time it all happened so fast. There were hundreds of passengers brought into the town hall." The retired police officer later discovered it was a child by the name of Bryony Owen who was 20 months old. Bryony was travelling to the United States with her mother Yvonne Owen from Wales, to spend Christmas in Boston. The first bodies were brought to the town hall, but people then started bringing them to the ice rink because it was the only place big and cold enough to store so many bodies. Reportedly, more than half of those living in Lockerbie and the surrounding areas at the time who witnessed the terrible events and aftermath suffer from PTSD. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing. The former Libyan intelligence officer was found guilty of mass murder in 2001.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Girlfriend still feels guilt after Lockerbie crash
On 21st December 1988, Tim Burman, 24, boarded a plane to New York, where he was planning to meet his girlfriend. He never made the other 259 passengers on Pan Am 103, he was killed when the flight was blown up over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 11 more people on the girlfriend at the time, Rose Grant, who has remained close with his family decades later, still blamed said: "I think of Tim with love and gratitude, but also guilt. Because he was coming to see me. If he wasn't coming to see me, he wouldn't have been on the plane." Tim Burman was born in Dunstable in 1964, and his sister Rachel Robertson described him as "the baby of the family".She recalled her brother's love for nature and being outside and said: "He was super smart, athletic, and his passion was the great outdoors. He climbed, he ran, he did road races."She added that a Scouts unit where he lived in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, launched a scheme every year "that enables someone else to follow the passions he has". "It's a bit of a family tradition now not to mourn death and loss but to remember birthdays and happy times instead," she banker was sat in seat 38G on Pan Am 103. His ashes were now in Scotland, where his family lives. Ms Grant, who has lived in Australia and America, still regularly visits her former boyfriend's family in the UK."I was welcomed into the family with absolute open arms in such difficult circumstances," she to BBC Three Counties Radio, she admitted she had never come to terms with the loss."You get on with your life, you do, you don't think you're going to initially, life has a funny way of pulling you back into the now," she said."But inside it's always been there."Although she has had three children since Mr Burman's death, she still speaks often of him with her added: "My daughter has a picture of Tim on her fridge with all her other important photos... They do know about Tim." Both women are included in a new documentary for BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer called Lockerbie: Our follows a six-part drama commissioned by the BBC and Netflix called The Bombing of Pan Am 103."The family members of everybody on that plane are getting older with time," Ms Robertson said."In the not-too-distant future, who's going to be around to tell that story?"In the drama, Tim is played by Cameron Mullane, who coincidentally is the same age the banker was in actor, making his television debut, is from Luton - a town between Dunstable, where Tim was born, and Harpenden, where he lived for a said: "I feel very privileged to give that performance to Tim."To think that he's my age and his life was cut short is really quite sobering." Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
