This day, 16 years ago

16 years ago to the day, Pan Am Flight 103 came to a premature and deadly end.

The conversation in the cockpit between the flights experience crew and a flight attendant was abruptly and indefinately cut short as their Boeing 747, weakened by a bomb, ripped itself apart by the aerodynamic forces of flight.

The mighty aircraft fell to the earth below in many thousands of pieces. One wing exploded in a cul-de-sac full of families in their houses.
Pan Am Flight 103’s nose section, which seperated just forward of the L1 and R1 doors came to rest in a farmers field just outside of Lockerbie.

As rescue workers approached the seemingly intact nose, an eerie red glow from the cockpit could be seen. The flight deck emergency lights had activated as the nose lost power from the forcefull seperation aloft.

Lockerbie awoke the following morning to a scene of devistation. One of the 747’s wings, fully laden with Jet A1 Aviation fuel had exploded on top of several houses, obliterating all trace of them and their hapless occupants.

For months Scotland, the UK and America reeled at the lost. Part of the wreckage of the aircraft remains in scotland, in a scrap yard near lockerbie… the Pan Am livery still very much evident.

Rest in Peace all the victims.
We shall not forget.

(And to think, they now want to move the person responsible for this back to his home country)