Young and old gather to mark 30th anniversary of Lockerbie
A LONE piper played a lament in Lockerbie yesterday as the young and the old joined to mark the 30th anniversary of the plane bombing.
Scouts, Girl Guides and members of the emergency services laid wreaths near the spot where Pan Am Flight 103 crashed. Bereaved relatives and politicians also gathered at the Dryfesdale Cemetery.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who is from the town, recalled the night that Lockerbie “lost its anonymity”.
He said: “We went from a quiet small town to a centre of global attention in a few seconds. That was the scale of the challenge local people have faced, aside from the horrors of the air disaster itself.”
Rev Susan Brown, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, added: “Scars from 30 years ago remain. They leave a mark that can never be removed.
“But while they will not disappear altogether and while we would never want to forget the horrendous cost of that single hateful act, we realise all the more acutely the sweetness of life and the need for it to be lived to the full.” Twenty-one nations remembered the
270 mostly American victims. Services took place at the FBI headquarters and the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington.
Many believe the bombing was in revenge for the downing by the US of an Iran passenger flight. But a Libyan, intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was convicted over the attack.
His family joined relatives of Lockerbie families including Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed on the eve of her 24th birthday. “We live with the loss,” he said.