To mark the 37th anniversary of one of Britain's most devastating terrorist attacks, the Daily Mail has released a powerful new podcast reconstructing the Lockerbie bombing minute by minute. The series is narrated by the veteran BBC broadcaster Michael Buerk, who reported from the scene in the immediate aftermath.
A Firsthand Account of Unfolding Horror
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown apart at 31,000 feet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The explosion killed all 259 passengers and crew on board, along with 11 residents on the ground. The attack was later found to have been orchestrated by Libyan intelligence agents under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Victims came from 21 different countries, including 35 Syracuse University students travelling home for Christmas.
Michael Buerk, who presented the BBC's Nine O'Clock News on the night of the attack, provides a harrowing narrative. He describes the newsroom descending into a 'madhouse' after the story broke and his determined efforts to reach the site. 'After a lot of lobbying late into the night, I talked my way onto the first flight up to Glasgow at six the following morning,' Buerk recounts. He hired a car and arrived in Lockerbie just after breakfast.
The Devastating Scene on the Ground
What Buerk witnessed remains seared in his memory. The wreckage of the Boeing 747 Jumbo jet was scattered across southern Scotland, with charred fragments found up to 90 miles away. The bulk of the aircraft, including its engines, crashed onto Lockerbie 'with the force of an earthquake.'
He describes one wing, laden with fuel, slicing down onto Sherwood Crescent 'like a gigantic flaming sword,' vaporising houses and their inhabitants. 'All that was left was a giant crater, 155 feet wide and 191 feet long, still steaming in the early mist,' Buerk said.
The cause was a Semtex bomb concealed inside a Toshiba radio cassette player, placed in the plane's forward cargo hold. It detonated 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow. The suitcase containing the device was loaded at Malta's Luqa Airport and routed through Frankfurt before being transferred onto the doomed flight.
A Legacy of Loss and Ongoing Justice
Buerk's account details the haunting aftermath faced by recovery workers. He recalls seeing passengers' bodies, some terribly mangled, while others appeared asleep. One victim remained in his airline seat, seemingly still holding a miniature bottle of red wine. On the town's outskirts, a field was 'covered with bits of body,' the pink of human brains stark against the winter landscape.
To date, only one person has been convicted for the atrocity: Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. A second suspect was arrested in 2022 and currently awaits trial. The Daily Mail's podcast, 'Minute by Minute: The Lockerbie Bombing,' alongside an interactive online reconstruction produced by its award-winning Deep Dive team, ensures the scale and horror of the event are not forgotten.
Buerk's full testimony, which first appeared in his 2004 autobiography 'The Road Taken,' forms the backbone of this poignant new audio documentary, released as the nation remembers the 270 lives lost.
