R.I.P. Morning Light/ Pan Am 103

It’s a cloudy October day in 2007. The last few days of a wonderful vacation. We went to London, then back to Manchester to pick up a rental car. A week in Wales, then up to Scotland for another week.

On the drive back from the Loch Ness area, I took and exit off the motorway, June gave me a quick glance, but said nothing. She knew that this would be a very private moment for me.

So I took the Vauxhall up a hill above the little town. Finding the field near a stone church in Tundergarth, Scotland. The grove of trees is a little taller, and a small flock of sheep wander the hillside now, but there was “The Spot”.

27 years ago the Clipper Morning Light was the Pan Am 747, that my mother and I rode to London from Seattle, on my first, and what would as it turns out be her only trip to England. A big beautiful plane, that made it’s way transporting people the world over.

Fast forward eight years, and a great deal of tension in the world. I had taken a job in the airline support business, gotten married. My mothers health was failing, to the point that another trip to England is out of the question. Still have to thank the Department of Defense for that. It seems mother was an unlisted casualty of the cold war.

The 21st of December 1988, I was taking the day off, it being our wedding anniversary. The news was slow picking up the story, for a few hours there was some confusion, but by that evening the image of the fallen cockpit with “Maid of the Seas” painted on the side was etched in my mind.
Years later while researching my first trip to England, I wondered what had ever happened to the “Morning Light”. A quick check with a Pan Am historical site found the entry (Morning Light renamed Maid of the Seas ).

Where I sit in Tundergarth, it’s quiet, and a few miles to the west Lockerbie has recovered. A few buildings are newer than their neighbors, having been built to replace the homes that were vaporised by the wing sections impact.

Little known is that a few people survived the fall, but died before help could reach them. It seems that the Captain” Jim MacQuarrie” was still trying to fly the 747 when the nose section struck the field next to the gray stone church.
Now I know that there are those that will point out, the Pan Am 103 was a target in a war of conflicting societies.

I come from a military family . My father an Air Force pilot, my mother served in the Air Force, my brother and myself both Air Force, my brother for a great many years more than I. In a real war mistakes happen, and innocent people are hurt. But when real men fight real wars, the targets are not third parties.

Giving your pregnant girlfriend a radio packed with explosive, and send her off on a passenger plane is the act of a coward, backed by a group of men unfit for a place in this world. I guess I just have a problem with people that think that I must follow their path or die.To quote the talk show host “Phil Hendri”. “When they strap bombs on their own children, you know there are no real men left in the Arab World”. Probably a gross overstatement but something to think about.

Anyway, I thought that that day in October 2007, with that visit to Lockerbie, I could put the Morning Light to rest. Maybe next trip….Maybe next time I’ll spend a little time, walk the field, and stand at “The Spot”. I’m not a religious person, but maybe this is something I need to do.