‘I hated whoever had done it with all my heart’: Veteran broadcaster Michael Buerk on the horrific scenes he witnessed at Lockerbie the morning after Britain’s deadliest terror attack
Daily Mail launches to mark 37th anniversary of Lockerbie Bombing A new podcast minute-by-minute reconstruction of how the attack happenedNarrated by veteran broadcaster Michael Buerk.
The podcast features Buerk’s devastating first-hand account of arriving in Lockerbie the morning after Pan Am Flight 103 crashed into the air at 31,000 feet, killing all 259 people on board and 11 residents below.
As well as the podcast, the Daily Mail’s award-winning Deep Dive team have also created an interactive reconstruction of the Lockerbie bombing; You can access it here.
In an attack carried out by Libyan intelligence agents under the command of Colonel Gaddafi on December 21, 1988, passengers from 21 countries were killed, including 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas.
The podcast features Buerk’s devastating first-hand account of arriving at Lockerbie the morning after Pan Am Flight 103 disintegrated at 31,000 feet.
Passengers from 21 countries died in the attack carried out by Libyan intelligence agents under the direction of Colonel Gaddafi on December 21, 1988.
Only one person, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, has so far been convicted of the attack, but a second suspect was arrested in 2022 and is awaiting trial.
Buerk covered breaking news on BBC Nine O’Clock News that evening, then flew to Scotland at dawn, arriving in Lockerbie the morning after the bombing.
‘I was reporting on the night Pan Am Flight 103 was shot out of the sky over Lockerbie,’ the broadcaster explained.
‘The story broke at two minutes past seven that evening. About ten minutes later we got the first call, and from then on the newsroom became a madhouse.
‘After lobbying late into the night, I took the first flight to Glasgow at six the next morning, hired a car and was in Lockerbie just after breakfast.
The wreckage of ‘Jumbo’ was actually spread across much of southern Scotland. Charred parts of the plane were found 90 miles away.
‘But most of it, including the engines, fell into Lockerbie and the surrounding area with earthquake force.
‘One of the fuel-laden wings had descended on Sherwood Crescent like a huge flaming sword. The explosion vaporized the houses and their people; “No trace of them was found.”
The Boeing 747 had been destroyed by a Semtex bomb hidden in a Toshiba radio cassette player in the forward cargo hold.
Buerk described the devastating scenes he witnessed that morning
To date, only one person, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al Megrahi, has been convicted of the attack.
The Boeing 747 was destroyed by a Semtex bomb hidden in a Toshiba radio cassette player in the forward cargo hold, which exploded 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow.
The bomb was hidden in a suitcase loaded at Malta’s Luqa Airport. Libyan intelligence officers had passed the orphaned bag through Frankfurt before it was transferred to Pan Am 103.
Buerk described the devastating scenes he witnessed that morning.
He said: ‘All that was left was a huge crater, 155 feet wide and 51 feet long, still steaming in the early mist.
‘Many of the passengers’ bodies were horribly crushed by the huge forces exerted when the plane broke apart.
‘But most of them looked like they were sleeping. One of them was still sitting in his airplane seat, apparently still holding the miniature bottle of red wine he had been offered when the bomb went off.
‘We found an area on the outskirts of town that appeared to be covered in body parts; The pink of the human brain stood out against the dull winter greens and grays.
‘In this town working among human and mechanical debris, it was impossible not to think about what that moment of terror must have been like, and worse, not to wonder how long people were conscious before they died.
‘I had a hard time understanding how someone could do this to innocent people he didn’t know, and I hated the person who did this with all my heart.’
Buerk’s full account appears in his 2004 autobiography, The Road Taken.
Listen to Minute by Minute: The Lockerbie Bombing now wherever you get your podcasts.
