All language subtitles for The.Lockerbie.Bombing.2013.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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NARRATOR: On December 21, 1988,

Jeannine Boulanger is driving
to pick up her daughter Nicole

from New York's JFK airport.

JEANNINE BOULANGER: Couldn't get
out of the house fast enough,

couldn't wait
to get to the airport.

NARRATOR: 21-year-old Nicole is
returning after 6 months abroad.

RADIO REPORTER: A Pan Am 747
carrying about 250 people...

BOULANGER: We weren't
really listening

to anything in particular,

but I heard about a plane
missing over Scotland.

NARRATOR: On the other side
of the Atlantic,

fires burned
in a small Scottish town.

BOULANGER:
And then we went and inquired,

and the gentleman
said that, um...

Pan Am 103 has been lost.

[Jeannine screaming]

I collapsed at the airport.

[screaming]

I was screaming,
"My baby! My baby!"

My baby!

NARRATOR: On a dark
December night in 1988,

one of the worst
aircraft disasters in history

occurred in the skies
over Scotland.

A Boeing 747 airplane
broke apart at 31,000 feet,

with 259 people on board.

Seconds later,

the peace of a rural
Scottish town was shattered.

Large sections of jumbo jet

smashed
into residential streets,

bringing fire and death
on an unimaginable scale.

The town's name was Lockerbie.

The shocking aftermath
of the crash

was captured on video camera.

Much of this footage has never
been broadcast before.

This is the story of Lockerbie
told by those who were there

and those whose lives
it tore apart.

MAN: Horrific.
It was a horrific scene.

MAN: The whole street was gone.
The whole street was on fire.

MAN: It is one of those nights
one will never forget.

WOMAN: Praying with all my might
that this wasn't happening.

WOMAN: I said the lord's prayer

'cause I thought
we were going to die.

NARRATOR: It was an event
that shocked the world

and would forever change
the way we travel.

The small town of Lockerbie is
located in the Scottish borders,

a peaceful rural corner
of Scotland.

Lockerbie sits
on the M74 motorway,

which is the main
north-south road

between England and Scotland.

For many, the town is
just a sign off the road.

MAN: A sleepy Scottish
hillside town.

Very welcoming place.

WOMAN:
A very quiet market town

where very little happened,
to be honest with you.

MAN: The youngsters
used to complain about

there was nothing going on,
you know.

Even going 12 miles to Dumfries
was a big adventure.

MAN: I knew where
Scotland was, but...

And Edinburgh perhaps, Glasgow.

But Lockerbie was just
beyond my understanding.

NARRATOR: In 1988,

Father Patrick Keegans
is the local catholic priest.

He lives at Number 1
Sherwood crescent,

a small street
on the edge of Lockerbie.

That Christmas
his mother is staying with him.

She'd arrived on the afternoon
of December the 21st.

PATRICK KEEGANS: I was
looking forward to Christmas

because Christmas
in a small place

is different from the city.

There's a sort of quaintness
and a real joy about Christmas.

NARRATOR: Local school teacher
Helen Fraser

also lives on Sherwood Crescent.

Helen, her husband,
and two children

live at Number 29.

HELEN FRASER: It was the first
day of the school holidays,

and I'd been teaching.

The children and I went to do

some bits and pieces
of Christmas shopping,

and we came back and we put up
the Christmas decorations.

NARRATOR: as locals
prepare for Christmas,

they could have no idea
that within hours

their small town
would become a household name

and a symbol
of worldwide tragedy.

At London's busiest airport,
Heathrow,

passengers are arriving

to catch flights
before the Christmas holidays.

Businessman Frank Ciulla
is traveling to New Jersey

to spend Christmas
with his family.

MARY LOU CIULLA:
He didn't have to do anything

when he came home.

I even bought
the sausage for the sauce,

which was very important
in our family.

In fact I made sure
that day, the 21st,

I went out and made sure
I had that in the house

in case he wanted
to make it that night.

MICHELLE CIULLA LIPKIN:
so my dad's big thing

that he loved to do was
go shopping on Christmas eve,

and that's just...
That's insane.

No one likes to go Christmas
shopping on Christmas eve,

and he loved it,

and so he would save
all my mom's presents

for Christmas eve,

and for a couple of years
I did the shopping with him

because I thought it was
a really miraculous process

because he would just go,
"this, this, this,"

and just buy
all of this stuff for my mom.

NARRATOR: also arriving
at Heathrow that day

are 35 American students--

members
of a study abroad program

run by Syracuse university.

Among the 35 is political
science major J.P. Flynn.

J.P. is an accomplished athlete.

JACK FLYNN:
Tennis was his best sport.

He was first singles
all the time, okay.

Even when he was a little kid

he would jump all the way up
to first singles.

One he loved the most
was basketball

because of the team spirit and
the team playing and so forth.

NARRATOR:
Traveling with J.P. That day

is his friend Tom Schultz.

Tom's mom, Jane, had visited him
in Europe just a month before.

JANE SCHULTZ: When I walked
into the kitchen,

he said,
"Oh, Ma, you're gonna love it

because we cleaned up
the apartment for you."

Well, cleaning up meant stacking
about a thousand pizza boxes

in the corner.

He had his hair cut real short
and he had it spiked,

and I didn't say anything,

and I knew he was just dying for
me to say something about it.

So after half an hour
he couldn't stand it

and he said,
"Well, what do you think, Ma?"

And I said, "All I can say

is I'm glad
your father isn't here."

NARRATOR: Among the many
departures that day

is Pan American 103,

a non-stop transatlantic flight
from London to new york.

Booked on board flight 103
is Nicole Boulanger,

a musical drama major
at Syracuse.

BOULANGER:
She loved fashion.

They often described Nicole

as being able to put on
a paper bag with accessories

and looking like
a million bucks.

She absolutely adored
consignment shops,

where she could endeavor to find
the most interesting things,

yet put together an outfit

that most of us
would be shocked to see,

because how did she do that?

NARRATOR: At Heathrow, those
boarding flight 103 in London

go through the normal check-in
and security procedures.

Their airplane,

a Pan Am jumbo jet named
"Clipper Maid of the Seas,"

is having baggage
loaded on board

and being readied
for the transatlantic flight.

Once every passenger
is accounted for,

the clipper "Maid of the Seas"
leaves its stand

and taxies for takeoff.

What no one on board knows

is that there's a brown suitcase
in the hold

that does not belong
to anyone on the plane.

Once in the air,
Pan Am 103 heads north.

The journey to New York
will take some seven hours.

The jumbo jet
reaches its cruising speed

at an altitude of 31,000 feet.

On board the flight

are 243 passengers
and 16 crew members.

Sitting in the first class cabin
is businessman Frank Ciulla.

LIPKIN: I remember this one time
where he came to the local pool

and he was dressed
in the most atrocious outfit,

with a cowboy hat,

and everyone just thought
he was like the coolest guy

in the whole world,

and of course
I was so embarrassed.

NARRATOR:
Drama student Nicole Boulanger

is sitting over the wings
in seat 28B.

JEANNINE: She had
so many, many, many friends.

And actually Nicole
was not fully aware

of how much talent
she actually had.

NARRATOR:
Keen athlete J.P. Flynn

is sitting in window seat 45A
towards the rear of the plane.

J. Flynn: Even though
he was a very good athlete,

he pushed his academics
just as hard.

He wanted to succeed at both.

NARRATOR: Sitting in the aisle
one seat from J.P.

Is his friend Tom Schultz.

SCHULTZ: He was very good
at arguing a point

and usually won his arguments,

so he had definitely
the Irish, the gift of gab.

NARRATOR:
25 minutes into its journey

flight 103 crosses
into Scottish airspace

and is about to turn west

towards the eastern seaboard
of the United States.

The plane makes contact with
Prestwick air traffic control.

This will be
the last communication

between the ground
and the plane.

46 seconds after 7:02,

Pan Am 103 disappears

from air traffic control
radar screens.

In just a few moments,

hell will descend
on the small town of Lockerbie.

Large sections of Pan Am 103
are plummeting to earth.

WOMAN: It just lit up
with white light.

WOMAN: And then the whole sky
turned orange.

MAN: The whole house went dark.

And the house shook so much,
it was impossible to move.

MAN: And then things just
started to fall out of the sky,

stone and debris
all around about us.

MAN: And I thought,
"I'm going to die here."

And then everything went still.

FRASER: I ran downstairs,

and the children
came running from the kitchen,

and I just grabbed them,

and we sat in the corner
of the hall

and said the lord's prayer,

'cause I thought
we were going to die.

NARRATOR:
Helen Fraser's house

is just a few hundred feet
from a huge impact crater.

Within minutes,

emergency calls
reach the fire department.

Their response
is captured on radio.

KEEGANS:
I opened up the front door,

and the whole street was gone.

The whole street was on fire.

There was fires in the garden,
rubble and debris everywhere.

NARRATOR: Father Patrick Keegans
and his mother

are incredibly lucky to survive.

Number 1 Sherwood Crescent

is just a short distance
from the now blazing crater.

KEEGANS: I said to my mother,
"We've got to leave."

So I got her ready
as best I could

and put a scarf over her mouth
and wrapped her up

and I put her in a big jacket
and boots and corduroy trousers,

and I said, "We'll..."

I said, "We'll leave now,
but don't look at anything.

Don't look.
Just keep your eyes down,"

so she kept her eyes down,

and I took her through
all this rubble.

FRASER: Everything was on fire.

The streets were burning,
the trees were burning.

There were small fires
and big fires.

NARRATOR: Sherwood Crescent

has been hit by the central wing
section of the plane,

which includes the fuel tanks.

Thousands of gallons
of aviation fuel

have exploded here,

obliterating five houses,

home to two families
with children,

a married couple,

and two elderly people.

FRASER: I think the blessing
would be that those who did die

would have died very quickly

and probably wouldn't have known
very much about it.

I hope they didn't.

NARRATOR:
In the first minutes,

there is confusion
about what has happened

among the emergency services.

NARRATOR:
Fire Officer Alan Riddet

happens to be in Lockerbie
by chance that night.

ALAN RIDDET:
Just started running up

and got pretty well
up the street

towards the crater site

and realized it was bad.

You knew it was something big

when there was black smoke,
to that extent, in the open.

NARRATOR: Local newspaper
photographer Robin Bryden

is one of the first members
of the press to arrive.

ROBIN BRYDEN: You couldn't
really see a great deal

because of all the smoke,

and you could
certainly smell the fuel,

and there was lots of people
running around,

shouting for relatives.

Walked onto the road.

It was closed off.

And I walked down there and
started taking the photographs

because you could see
the burning houses.

MAN: As I was walking
up the street

the fires were breaking out
in front of me and behind me.

And I was starting to...
I was frightened, you know.

I was thinking I've got caught
in something here.

So I was tempted
just to come back.

MAN: There was nothing
we could do here at all.

I mean absolutely nothing.

The guy behind me,

we decided to run across
the fields to the houses.

One or two houses
were totally engulfed,

again nothing you could do,

but the ones on the outskirts,

there was obviously hope,
you know.

NARRATOR:
It's clear to many on the scene

that this is some sort
of plane crash,

but they know little else.

RIDDET:
When a reasonable number

of firefighters
arrived on scene

and we started to
try and tackle the fire...

When the water system failed.

We quickly realized
that one of the engines

had fallen down
through the water main.

So it became quite a difficult
incident to deal with

because we had a major fire
and not a lot of water.

MAN: What we're doing
at the moment

is we're doing
a reconnaissance of the area,

we're reporting back
to the control unit

to update the picture
that's emerging there.

RIDDET:
The fire, to a large extent,

was the least of the problems,

the biggest concern

was about whether there were
any survivors...

How could we help them?

NARRATOR: News that
a passenger jet has crashed

quickly spreads across
the united kingdom;

journalists and TV crews
rush to the scene.

KIRSTY WARK:
The phone rang in the newsroom,

and we were all there
having a party.

And the news came through
that something had happened,

a plane had downed.

We realized immediately that we
should go very, very quickly.

NARRATOR:
In the United States,

news reports begin to filter
through to families.

J. FLYNN: I was listening
to the radio, the news,

and they told me
about a plane going down.

CIULLA: A jumbo jet went down
over Scotland,

hit a petrol station, on fire.

Now, I knew my husband
was coming home,

but it didn't give you the name,

you know, Pan Am
or American, whatever,

so I was a little nervous.

I turned around,
and the second time he came on,

he did say "Pan Am."

Not 103,
but he did say "a Pan Am jet."

And I think that's when
my stomach just kind of sank.

NARRATOR:
News of the events in Lockerbie

reaches the British government
in London.

SIR MALCOLM RIFKIND:
I was in the house of commons,

and I got a message saying

that there had been
an explosion,

that a Pan Am aircraft
had crashed,

there'd been some sort
of explosion in the sky,

and at that stage,
nobody yet knew anything else.

NARRATOR: In Lockerbie,

hundreds of off-duty police
officers rush to the scene,

including 21-year-old
Kate Thomson.

KATE THOMSON: I do remember

being in the car with
my colleagues, making our way,

and we were just
south of Lockerbie

and we could see,
in the distance, flames,

and another colleague
from the service

came across our radios and said,

"I've found the cockpit,
and it says 'Maid of the Seas.'"

NARRATOR:
The discovery of the cockpit

is a crucial moment.

The emergency services
on the ground now know

this is a 747 jumbo jet.

And they know there will be
hundreds of casualties.

The cockpit is in fact
lying some three miles

from the center of Lockerbie.

It's clear from this point on

that the wreckage
hasn't just hit the town;

it is scattered for miles.

THOMSON:
You could hear two-tone sirens.

You could see flames.

You could see there was smoke.

But along with that
there was actually peace.

It was a strange kind
of silence in places.

WARK: It seemed to me
that the place was stunned.

It felt as if the whole...

The physical area of the town
was just...

The whole thing was just
completely stunned.

NARRATOR:
At the local hospital,

doctors and nurses
are called back to work

and emergency medical supplies
and blood arrive.

The medical staff
prepare to deal

with hundreds of casualties.

Specialists like RAF Mountain
Rescue team leader David Whalley

also begin to arrive.

DAVID WHALLEY:
When I arrived at Lockerbie,

all the way down you could see
wreckage on the road.

The smell of fuel,
aviation fuel,

absolutely stank.

I'd never smelled it
so heavy in the air.

And the fires were just
Dante's inferno.

It was horrific.
It was a horrific scene.

NARRATOR: It isn't just aircraft
wreckage scattered around,

but the remnants of human life.

WHALLEY: We went round,

and within five minutes
we knew we could do nothing.

You know, it was mayhem.

And, you know,
without saying too much,

there was bodies everywhere,

there was
Christmas presents everywhere,

everybody that we could see
was dead.

NARRATOR: The many ambulances
that arrive in Lockerbie

stand idle.

There are very few wounded
among the local people.

And at the hospital,

staff are still expecting
many casualties

from the jumbo jet to arrive.

MAN: There have been
no survivors reported

from the crashed aircraft,

and we're waiting
for Dr. Hill,

who is the on-site
medical officer,

to give us
an official stand down.

NARRATOR: On the other side
of the Atlantic,

relatives of the victims
begin to arrive at JFK Airport,

many not aware that flight 103
will never land.

Among them
is Jeannine Boulanger

and her husband.

BOULANGER: I collapsed
at the airport,

and I remember
being on the ground,

trying to get up,

and I was surrounded...

People were right on top of me
with cameras and bright lights.

It was the worst moment that one
could possibly have experienced.

[screaming]

NARRATOR: Other relatives
will also hear the terrible news

that afternoon.

17-year-old Michelle Ciulla is
told to return home from school.

LIPKIN: When I walked
in the house,

at that point,
my mother was on the floor,

crying and screaming.

And my sister
was still in her coat,

and so I knew like things
were happening really fast,

and I remember at that time,
going into a room,

not even saying
anything to them,

going into the room
and just praying

and like praying
with all my might

that this wasn't happening.

BOULANGER: Parents are supposed
to protect their children,

and at that moment,

I realized that...

We could not have
provided that for her.

REPORTER: Even now,

a few hours after the tragedy
of Pan Am Flight 103,

the full extent of the disaster
has not been assessed.

All around are fragments
of the aircraft's fuselage.

Helicopters hover overhead
with powerful searchlights

as the grim search
for bodies continues.

NARRATOR: One of those walking
the hills around the town

is police surgeon
David Fieldhouse.

DAVID FIELDHOUSE: We met up with
one of those chaps with his dog,

and he had found locations
where there were bodies,

and when the number
got to about 10 or 11,

we decided that we ought to go
back and label every one of them

because we hadn't expected
that sort of number,

and we labeled them--

well, I labeled them
with my initials "DCF1"

and eventually up to 58.

NARRATOR: Around midnight,

the secretary of state
for Scotland, Malcolm Rifkind,

arrives in Lockerbie.

RIFKIND: When we first arrived,

I was taken tour of the site.

There was, sadly,
artifacts on the ground--

a shoe, a handbag,

various elements
of personal property

which had just
fallen from the sky.

When one went
to the first location

where there's a massive
crater in the ground

caused by the impact
of the fuselage,

with houses totally destroyed...

Clearly it must have been
an enormously devastating event.

NARRATOR: As the news
is officially confirmed

that a jumbo jet has
broken apart in mid air,

the first thoughts are not
of a terrorist attack.

ROBERT BENZON:
When we first heard

that the event had started
at 31,000 feet, or around there,

we worried about the integrity
of the aircraft, frankly.

The 747 wasn't
the brand-new design.

It had never broken up
in flight before.

But if it was
a mechanical malfunction

or some kind
of a structural failure,

that would affect all the other
747s out there perhaps.

NARRATOR: If this is
a structural failure,

it will be catastrophic
for the airline industry.

Across the globe,

thousands of passengers
will be stranded

just days before Christmas.

In the early hours
of the morning,

the authorities
call a press conference.

Secretary of state for Scotland
Malcolm Rifkind

and U.S. Ambassador
Charles Price

address the waiting media.

RIFKIND:
It is one of those nights

one will never forget.

It's clearly been
an appalling disaster.

CHARLES PRICE:
Tragedies of this nature

are impossible to predict.

It's just a most unfortunate
and incredible situation,

and we're very, very sorry.

NARRATOR: Nearly 10 hours after
flight 103 has hit Lockerbie,

the authorities
still have very few answers.

RIFKIND: You couldn't just say,
"no comment"

to every single question.

You couldn't just say,
"sorry, I can't help you,"

but quite often
you had to say that.

It is certainly the case

that the aircraft
clearly experienced

some form of explosion

which has resulted in
many parts of the aircraft

falling in different locations.

That we know.

But what might have
caused that to happen--

I'm sorry,
I could not even speculate.

WARK: There was a huge
sense of frustration

because we couldn't know,

we didn't know
what had happened.

We didn't know whether it had
been a massive engine explosion,

engine failure,
pilot error, a bomb.

Nobody knew.

And as a journalist,

when there's so little
you can say

and so little
that you can report,

that is very frustrating.

NARRATOR: At Syracuse University
in New York State,

news reaches the staff
and students.

Judy O'Rourke is working

in the undergraduate studies
office that day.

JUDY O'ROURKE: it was just
a very, very typical day

until we got the call
that Pan Am 103 was missing.

"How can you lose an airplane?"
was really the first thought.

It just didn't make sense.

It wasn't until later
in the evening

that we really could confirm

that the plane had indeed
crashed and broken up somehow,

and that they were not finding
survivors.

On campus the mood

was changed immediately.

People were looking forward
to the semester break,

to holidays that were coming up,
to finishing their exams.

Suddenly the rumors
started flying

that this tragedy had occurred,

this horrible thing
had happened,

and the tradition at Syracuse

is that when a tragedy happens,

when something
of great importance happens,

we gather at the chapel,

the chapel throws
its doors open.

And so that night
that is what happened,

and students just streamed
into the chapel.

[bell tolling]

NARRATOR: In the coming hours
it will emerge

that there are in fact
35 students on the flight,

all of them traveling home
for Christmas.

In and around
the Town of Lockerbie

are the bodies of the 259 people

on board Pan Am Flight 103.

Many of these victims will be
found in the coming hours,

but some
will never be identified.

MARJORY MCQUEEN: My husband
brought back some policemen,

I think,
at three, four in the morning,

and I think they saw off quite
a lot of the Christmas brandy

at that time
because I think my husband said

that these men had seen things

that they should really
should never have seen,

sights that just were awful.

FIELDHOUSE:
It was a harrowing time

for all the local people and all
the volunteers who were there

because I don't think anybody,
including me,

had seen anything quite
as severe as that before.

NARRATOR: The full horror
of Lockerbie

will only emerge
as the sun rises at daybreak.

As dawn breaks
on the 22nd of December,

the full extent of the disaster
becomes clear.

In Sherwood Crescent,

five homes
are completely destroyed.

Eleven local residents
are missing.

The wreckage of Pan Am 103

is scattered
over 845 square miles.

And all of the 259 people
on board the Jumbo Jet

have lost their lives.

WHALEY: And at first light

we had all the guys--
about 200 of us--

and we did a sweep

round the areas
that we'd found stuff,

and we knew
what we were looking for

'cause the reccie boys
had come back and said,

"Engines here, fuselage here,"

and by first light
we'd found the black box

and we'd located
about 160 fatalities,

which is incomprehendable.

NARRATOR: The remains
of Pan Am 103

can be seen all over town.

At Rosebank,

a large section of fuselage,
containing 61 individuals,

has devastated several houses.

At Sherwood Crescent,

there is a huge crater
where five houses had been.

Two engines
have also hit the town

and buried themselves
in the ground.

And the Jumbo Jet's cockpit
is lying in a field

some three miles from Lockerbie.

WARK: It was really strange
because of course

it was like
the dawning of a new day,

and yet it was really not.

It was kind of
the horror of the night

was just becoming
a little bit clearer.

THOMSON: I'll always
remember coming in,

and there was still
that air of smoke, you know,

that was just lurking.

But by then Sherwood Crescent,
all the fires had been put out,

and park place
had been sealed off,

and they were obviously
dealing with that,

but by then
they'd started to arrange

a lot of the searches
of the hills,

over the hill
towards where the cockpit was.

NARRATOR: From the first hours
of the emergency response,

the disaster is treated
as a criminal investigation.

Every victim
and piece of wreckage

is painstakingly
recorded and cataloged.

This small Scottish Town

has become the focus
of the world's media.

WARK: This is a very close
rural community,

and naturally
people are reluctant

to talk about what's happened.

People obviously at the moment
still don't know

whether their friends and
neighbors have been involved.

There's still a number
of local people missing,

and we don't have
any accurate figures on that.

For Lockerbie it must
have been bewildering

to have all these
big vans trundling in,

you know, reporters everywhere,
swarming over the place.

But they were
incredibly generous

and incredibly hospitable.

KEEGANS: It was a sense of being
in an unreal world,

the first day,

when I saw TV crews and cameras
and journalists.

So it was like
being in a dream.

NARRATOR: In Sherwood Crescent,

residents see for themselves
the human cost of the tragedy.

FRASER: And there was bits
of stuff lying everywhere.

And there was this...

This piece of...

I didn't know what it was.

It was sort of...Grayish,
pinkish, big sort of lump,

kind of, maybe ten inches
by eight inches,

that sort of size.

And I kind of
looked at it closely,

and then I realized
it was a big piece of skin,

and I thought, "Oh, God."

I didn't really look very
closely at anything after that.

And there was a bible
lying beside it,

just the pages were fluttering.

NARRATOR: Some 17 hours
after the event,

British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher

arrives in Lockerbie
to see the disaster for herself.

RIFKIND: She did more or less
the same tour that I had done,

including the visit
to Lockerbie itself.

MARGARET THATCHER:
It is very moving indeed

because there are a lot
of personal possessions

that you can see
scattered about.

RIFKIND: And I think
she also made a point

of wishing
to go to all the people

who had volunteered
during the night to help,

with coffee, with sandwiches,

with medical support,
with psychological support,

just to express thanks
on behalf of the country.

THATCHER: Our American friends
will remember us,

and we must remember
their grief, too.

Thank you very much.
Thank you.

FRASER: The rescue workers
were a bit annoyed

because they had to stop working

when these dignitaries
descended,

and at that time
they were still hoping

they might find
somebody alive...

And... of course they didn't.

NARRATOR: In total,

11 local people
have lost their lives,

all of them residents
of Sherwood Crescent.

Many of their bodies
will never be found

due to the force
of the explosion.

WHALEY: You don't expect
this to happen

in a rural village
in Scotland, at Christmas.

And Christmas
was the big thing as well.

Teddy bears
and Christmas presents...

It's hard, very hard.

NARRATOR: So many bodies
had been recovered

that Lockerbie Town Hall

is converted
into a temporary morgue.

It is here that
the identification process

will take place.

Father Patrick Keegans agrees
to accompany Joe Horgan,

a relative of one
of those killed,

to the Town Hall.

KEEGANS: I went downstairs

where I thought the coffin
would be.

I didn't know what to expect,

I didn't know what
I was walking into.

And opened up these doors,

and it was where
they were actually doing

the sort of embalming area.

I'd gone down there by mistake,

and all I could see
was red and white,

and I can still see that
to this day, red and white,

and the smell.

I thought--so I went
back upstairs,

and Joe was there--

a big, strong chap,
and I'm not very tall.

And this is the hard bit to say,
but I'll try it.

So we opened up the doors
of the Town Hall...

And the coffins
all lay there in rows...

And Joe and I went up this row
of coffins to the number--

the coffins were numbered--

and we held on to each other

and managed to say
some sort of prayer,

and we left.

FRASER: We had a lot of bits
which we didn't know about

until a policeman came
and knocked at the door.

So he had a quick look

and then he came back
and he said,

"You've got a few bits
of human remains around."

I went and picked
some Christmas roses

that we had growing,

and I put a rose...

Sorry.

I put a rose at each piece.

Said a wee prayer.

Kind of pointless thing
to do, really,

but I just felt
I couldn't not do anything.

NARRATOR: Hundreds
of police officers, soldiers,

and accident investigators

are ordered
to comb the countryside

around Lockerbie.

They need to locate
thousands of pieces of wreckage,

the missing bodies,

and any clues
that can help explain

what brought down Pan Am 103.

72 hours after the incident,

FBI explosives expert
Tom Thurman

is called to a meeting

and asked to examine
a strange piece of wreckage

by the lead accident
investigator.

TOM THURMAN: He said,
"This has been segregated out

from a lot of things that we're
finding out in the fields,

and that it appears
to be different."

And I looked at it
closer and closer,

and I said, "Ok,
based upon a quick visual

at this point,

which would have to be confirmed

by absolutely
a laboratory examination,

this appears to be direct result
of high explosives."

There was a silence.

NARRATOR: The explosive device

had been in one of the plane's
baggage containers.

This discovery
changes everything.

From this point on,

Lockerbie is an International
Criminal Investigation.

But it will take several days

for tests to confirm
it is in fact a bomb

and a shocking act of terror.

Christmas 1988

is a difficult time
for those in Lockerbie.

KEEGANS:
I couldn't say Christmas Mass.

I couldn't do the Midnight Mass.

So I got the Bishop to do it.

Bishop Taylor came and did it.

I said, "I'm not...I'll just
cry my way through thiS."

So he says,
"You could do one prayer."

I said,
"Ok, I'll do one prayer."

I got maybe
six or seven words out,

and that was it,
just the tears came.

NARRATOR: The grief
of those in Scotland

is shared by those
in the United States

who have lost their loved ones.

LIPKIN:
I remember Christmas day

just being the four of us,

and it was the first time
our house had been empty

since it happened

and realizing that everyone else
was with their family

and that this was
really our loss,

like even if people
care about us,

even if people
help us, support us,

this was ours, and we were
gonna need to deal with it.

That was really eye-opening.

-J. FLYNN: Everybody...
-K. FLYNN: Just came.

J. FLYNN:
Came and cried with us.

K. FLYNN: Our whole family
was there.

J. FLYNN: And our memory of J.P.

SO...I forgot that.

K. FLYNN: Everybody was there.

BOULANGER: It was...

A non-existing time
in many ways.

And there was an empty chair
at the table.

NARRATOR: The investigators
call a press conference.

It will end speculation about
what caused the disaster.

MAN: It has been established

that two parts of the metal
luggage pallet's framework

show conclusive evidence
of a detonating high explosive.

NARRATOR:
It is later established

that an unaccompanied suitcase

has been transferred
onto the plane in London,

which contains
an explosive device.

SCHULTZ: A reporter
came up to me

and said,
"We've just gotten the news,

it's just come over television,

that it was a terrorist bomb
that brought the plane down."

BOULANGER: A bomb.

A young woman

and many other
wonderful people on that plane--

adults,

very young children,

blown up in the air? For what?

CIULLA: I guess I could have
lived with different thoughts,

naturally, if it was just
a plane crash.

But to be murdered,
that was something that...

That was hard to take.

NARRATOR:
Over the following months

investigators piece together

thousands
of fragments of evidence.

They discover that the bomb
had been placed

in a Samsonite suitcase.

This bag was transferred
into the Pan Am baggage system

from an Air Malta Flight
at Frankfurt Airport.

HAL HENDERSHOT: We did know
we were in

for a very long investigation.

It's tough
when you have a murder.

It's harder when the murder
could have happened

literally anywhere in the world

and the people
that perpetrated that murder

were unknown and could be

who knew where
at that point in time.

KEEGANS: One of the hardest
things I suppose

was the early funerals.

That was hard.

Because the first funeral
was Joanne Flannigan.

She was only ten.

And that funeral was here.

I was conducting the funeral.

I didn't feel very strong.

NARRATOR: When identification
has been confirmed,

the bodies of the victims are
returned in early January 1989.

In the United States,
some of the families

come to meet the bodies of their
loved ones at the airport.

K. FLYNN: A forklift lifted out
the coffins one by one,

and there they are,
dangling up in the sky,

and each family
had a hearse there,

waiting to take the body.

It was like they were handling
a piece of cargo.

It just...It was terrible.

NARRATOR: Tom Schultz has died

just days before
his 21st birthday.

J. FLYNN: It was
a horrible experience,

going to pick up
your son's dead body.

And as I said before,

everybody was so sorrowful
and crying and so on, so forth,

so we went through
a long period of sorrow,

long period to this day,

still sorrowful.

We still cry a lot.

NARRATOR: J.P. Flynn

would have celebrated
his 46th birthday in 2013.

CIULLA: Frank was returned home
on the Concorde,

through the bank.

And actually they cremated him
in London and all,

and on the plane
they knew the story

and, which I thought
was the nicest thing

I heard at that time,

was that they all toasted him
with champagne.

BOULANGER:
Nicole's body was not recovered.

There were body parts
that were recovered

for which they could not
assign an identity.

So that all of these were buried
in one simple grave

in the Lockerbie cemetery,

with a headstone

of those whose remains
could not be identified,

Nicole being one of them.

NARRATOR: The remains
of 17 individuals

who cannot be identified

lie in the Lockerbie Cemetery.

The tragedy
unfolding in Lockerbie

will have an immediate effect
on international travel.

A Presidential Commission
examining the events

makes 60 recommendations
to tighten airport security.

Bags will no longer
be allowed to travel

without
an accompanying passenger,

and bag searches
become more rigorous.

BENZON: Air travel really isn't
a pleasant experience,

and Lockerbie was pretty much
the first step in that, I think.

There'd been bombings before,

but Lockerbie
was the eye-opener.

HENDERSHOT: I think, in my mind

that Pan Am Flight 103
and the bombing of that flight

was kind of the introduction

to say to the United States

that we're not as isolated
as we thought we were

from acts of terrorism.

So to me it was kind of
a starting point.

I'll always remember it.

Obviously I had a part to play
in the investigation itself.

Um...

But it's something that
I think it P...

For lack of
a better description,

it woke a sleeping giant.

NARRATOR: In the year 2000

at a specially convened
Scottish court

sitting in the Netherlands,

Libyan Nationals
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah

are tried
for 270 counts of murder.

Al-Megrahi alone
is found guilty

and sentenced
to 27 years in jail.

Despite his conviction,

many questions still remain
over the bombing.

In 2003,
in response to a Civil Lawsuit,

Colonel Gaddafi's Libyan regime

agrees to pay $2.7 billion
in compensation

to the families
of Pan Am 103 victims.

In 2008, al-Megrahi is diagnosed
with terminal cancer

and released
on compassionate grounds

a year later.

He died in may 2012.

RIFKIND: I recall
when the Arab Spring

happened in Libya
two or three years ago,

when it began to look as if
Gaddafi might be overthrown,

I couldn't help but say
yes, yes, this is justice.

This needs to be done.

He's the person who was
ultimately responsible

in all the evidence
that has been obtained.

And it's good that justice

has caught up
with him personally,

not just with Megrahi

or any individuals who were
directly involved at the time.

KEEGANS: If those who've died

were able to speak to us
just now, what would they say?

And they would tell us,
"Live your lives joyfully,

because that's how we want you
to live your lives."

Because in the back
of my head, too,

there was this thought:

we're not going to allow
the terrorists

to have our lives as well.

BOULANGER: The world is full
of hate and terror,

and I've decided
that I need to concentrate

on the goodness
that surrounds us

and the beauty of life,

because I don't think
my daughter

would want anything else.