What's At the Lockerbie Air Disaster Crash Site Today?
How the town of Lockerbie, Scotland healed and rebuilt after the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Lockerbie, Scotland is a small town in south-western Scotland, roughly 75 miles from Glasgow. Different groups of people have been living there for at least 6,000 years, and it’s had roughly the same name for at least the last 1,000. It’s older name, “Loc-hard’s by,” meant Lockard Town in Old Norse, circa the year 900.
By the 1700s, Lockerbie was a staging post on the route between Glasgow and London. Since then, it has mostly been a small farming community known for raising sheep. It’s the last place you’d expect to make international headlines, but Lockerbie came to global attention after the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 rained down on the town on December 22, 1988. The disaster, and one survivor’s quest for truth, are the focus of Peacock’s Lockerbie: A Search For Truth starring Colin Firth.
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In the aftermath of the disaster, some of the survivors dedicated themselves to investigating the terrorist attack, while others focused on caring for the living and honoring the dead. Along the way, the town of Lockerbie was rebuilt. The flaming scars of the Lockerbie disaster have healed into a living memorial.
The Lockerbie air disaster memorial at Sherwood Crescent
Thirty-eight minutes into the flight of Pan Am 103, at 31,000 feet, a bomb exploded in the cargo hold. The explosion killed 243 passengers and 16 crew aboard the plane and the wreckage killed another 11 on the ground in Lockerbie. A large piece of the plane’s wing section crashed into the residential area of Sherwood Crescent, destroying several homes and killing the residents. Today, that area is a small memorial garden there.
RELATED: Everything to Know About Peacock's Lockerbie: A Search for Truth Starring Colin Firth
Visitors will find a memorial stone set in a lawn and surrounded by gravel. A small plaque set into the stone reads, “In remembrance of Maurice Peter Henry, Dora Henrietta Henry, Mary Lancaster, Jack Somerville, Rosaline Hannay Somerville, their children Pam and Linsey Anne, and all victims of Lockerbie Air Disaster who died here on 21st December 1988.”
Lockerbie Memorial Garden of Remembrance
A larger memorial to all of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie Memorial Garden of Remembrance, was erected at Dryfesdale Cemetery, about a mile west of Lockerbie. At the far end of the cemetery, visitors will find beds of flowers intersected by walking paths.
RELATED: Colin Firth Investigates a Terror Cover-Up in Official Trailer for Lockerbie Limited Series (WATCH)
Those paths lead to a semicircular memorial wall made of three large stone tablets inscribed with the names and nationalities of all 270 victims. One plaque leading up to the memorial reads, “This Garden of remembrance is in memory of the 270 victims whose ages ranged from 2 months to 82 years from 21 nations. The ages and nationalities of all victims are contained in the Book of Remembrance situated at Tundergarth Memorial Room.”
The Tundergarth Memorial Room (previously the cemetery watch room) is now a visitor’s center open 24 hours a day for visitors coming to pay their respects.
Watch Lockerbie: A Search For Truth, streaming now on Peacock.
