Documentaries
Thirty years on from the LOCKERBIE DISASTER, one survivor tells the story of his lucky escape
Including Lockerbie: The Unheard Voices and Gun No 6
new FACTUAL Lockerbie: The Unheard Voices Tuesday, Channel 5 HD, 9pm
THIS MONTH MARKS 30 years since Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb that killed all 243 passengers and 16 crew, plus a further 11 people on the ground, when the wreckage fell on the town of Lockerbie in south-west Scotland.
In Channel 5’s documentary about the tragedy, the stories of six of the survivors and six of the victims are told, following events from 8.30am on the morning of 21 December 1988, the fateful date when flight 103 departed from Heathrow Airport at 6pm.
MISSED FLIGHT
They include the mother and daughter who tossed a coin to decide which of them would board the flight, a father who had saved up his air miles to take his young family to America, and a car mechanic who narrowly missed the flight because he’d lingered too long in the airport bar.
Jaswant Basuta, the 47-year-old mechanic, was returning to New York after attending
a family wedding in Belfast and had arrived in good time at Heathrow to catch his flight.
But the relatives from Southall in west London who were dropping Jaswant off decided to give him a bit of a send-off in the bar, and he lost track of time.
When ‘gate closing’ flashed up on the departure board, he dashed to the gate, but the plane had left.
SURVIVOR
Thirty-eight minutes into the flight, the bomb went off and Jaswant, who was anticipating spending the night in the airport, could not believe his lucky escape.
‘Why me? Why was I saved?’ he asks. ‘I should have been the 271st victim and I still feel terrible for all the people who died.’
When the news broke, Jaswant’s wife, Surinder, in New York assumed the worst. But she received a phone call from a Heathrow desk officer saying her husband was alive and well, and sitting next to him.
‘It was the happiest moment of my life,’ says Jaswant. ‘We both cried and cried.’
Libyan Abdelbaset al-megrahi was convicted of the crime in 2001, but a police investigation is ongoing and could result in the case being reopened.
For Jaswant, his narrow escape inspired him to make the best of the life that had nearly been cut prematurely short.
‘That day, I was given the gift of life all over again. It was as if a voice in my head said: “Now do something good with your life!” It is my duty to repay that gift by helping others in any way I can – and this is what I try to do.’
‘Why was I saved? I should have been the 271st victim’ JASWANT basuta