On the Record: The deadliest flight

By Gemma Fraser
Head of content

It has been more than 36 years since Pan Am flight 103 exploded in the sky over Lockerbie, and a second criminal trial is approaching.

While proceedings face delays, Abu Agila Masud Al-Marimi is due to stand before a jury in Washington DC accused of being a co-conspirator in the Lockerbie bombing – the terrorist attack which remains one of the deadliest the world has ever witnessed.

On this side of the Atlantic, in a small, nondescript office in a police station on the outskirts of Dumfries town centre, sits Stuart Cossar, the man tasked with heading up the Scottish investigation; an investigation which has remained fully open and active for 36 years.

“People’s lives will never be the same because of Lockerbie,” says Cossar.

“The trial in America will be proof that we haven’t rested, that we have continued to try, despite the fact that 36 years have passed now.”

Lockerbie was, before December 21, 1988, a normal, small Scottish town, its name relatively unknown outside of the confines of the Dumfries and Galloway region.

But when the passenger plane from London bound for New York exploded over it, just under 38 minutes after take-off, the town became synonymous with tragedy, death, and an act of terrorism on such a large scale that it was the deadliest attack up until 9/11.

A total of 270 people were killed, including 11 Lockerbie residents.

The only man ever to be convicted was former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was found guilty in 2001 of the murders by the introduction of an explosive device onto the aircraft – but the search for others involved did not stop with his conviction.

Cossar’s first policing job saw him posted to Lockerbie the year after the disaster, but it wasn’t until 1999 that he became involved in the investigation.

“That was in the build-up to the trial in Kamp van Zeist in The Netherlands,” he tells 1919.

“I was drafted in to give support to Crown Office in the preparation for the trial. We were strengthening the evidence.

“A lot of the time it was precognition work, so you were going out and re-interviewing witnesses – and that wasn’t just in the UK, that was throughout the world – just to confirm what they said initially, or to seize other productions, or get them to sign certificates to make sure that everything was ready for court purposes.

“I worked predominantly in Malta, I worked a bit in Germany as well, and also worked in Italy, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.”

This eventually led Cossar to his one and only encounter with Megrahi, when he was in HMP Greenock awaiting the outcome of his second appeal, which he later abandoned.

“That was in relation to some of the evidence that he wanted to examine for his appeal,” recalls Cossar.

“When I first saw him, when he came through the door, I completely ignored him because it wasn’t who I expected. Then I realised it was actually him.

“He was courteous, he was polite, he spoke well, he spoke in English.

“I had a real battle with my conscience as to how I would greet him, but I had to do a job.”

Megrahi’s conviction has been the subject of intense debate over the past two decades, with many believing it to be a miscarriage of justice.

Claims that the evidence was manipulated to implicate Libya as the source of the bomb plot, steering suspicion away from Middle Eastern states such as Syria and Iran, found their way into numerous books and TV programmes.

Prosecutors were accused of ignoring evidence that the bomb was put aboard Pan Am flight 103 at Heathrow rather than Malta, and that the crucial timer fragment, the principal piece of evidence against Libya, was planted or altered.

However, in 2014 a detailed review by Scottish investigators concluded there was “not a shred of evidence” to support claims Megrahi was wrongly convicted.

“A lot of people have got their own theories,” says Cossar, of the campaign to prove Megrahi’s innocence.

“Because he was courteous and polite, you maybe find it difficult to believe that he would be involved in such an atrocity, but you’ve got to look through that and you’ve got to look beyond the man and you’ve got to look at the evidence which, for me, is overwhelming that he’s guilty.

“Some of the people believe that some of the critical productions in the case like the small fragment of timer that was recovered, they think that that was recovered in a field and that’s why they’re so suspicious of it.

“It wasn’t found like that, it was found embedded in a piece of charred clothing that was established as coming from the IED [improvised explosive device] suitcase.

“It’s theories like that that are completely at odds with the actual truth.”

Having left his job as a toolmaker in a factory in Dumfries, Cossar joined Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary – the smallest police force in the UK at the time – and was posted to Lockerbie in October 1989.

But despite it being so soon after the disaster, there was a sense of trying to get back to normality as much as possible.

In a lot of respects, it was business-as-usual when it came to policing the town.

“I never really thought about the investigation or what had happened in Lockerbie at that time,” he says.

“You basically dealt with all the day-to-day stuff that you would deal with in any town.

“The town was obviously still recovering from it, it was still very raw, there was a lot of emotion about what had happened. You were always aware of that.

“But if I’m honest, not a lot of people spoke about it.

“They were very insular about everything that had happened, and it wasn’t something where you would go out and say ‘what were you doing?’ or ‘what did you see?’ – it was quite intrusive to think of even doing that.

“A lot of people kept everything bottled up.

“As an example, a lady I know who recovered a lot of property in her garden at the time of the disaster, when she goes away on holiday and people ask her where she’s from, she says Dumfries because she doesn’t want the inevitable questions of what was it like, where were you, what did you see…

“A lot of people are very guarded in what they do and say about Lockerbie.”

“People came out and did extraordinary things. But it is a very close-knit community and that’s how they all coped with it and dealt with it”

But what is clear is that anyone living in Lockerbie at the time of the disaster – and many of them are still living there despite the tragedy on their doorstep – witnessed unimaginable scenes that night, and in the aftermath.

Cossar says: “A lot of the ladies in Lockerbie volunteered to do the laundry for all the clothes that were recovered before they were sent back to the victims’ families, because they didn’t want clothing to be soiled with regards to where the bodies landed, or where property landed, so they cleaned and laundered everything before they went back.

“People came out and did extraordinary things. But it is a very close-knit community and that’s how they all coped with it and dealt with it.

“I don’t know if PTSD was even known about back then, but I think a lot of people probably did suffer from it.”

A new TV drama has this year reopened old wounds for both residents and victims’ families alike.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is based on a book written by Dr Jim Swire, the father of one of the victims, Flora Swire, but his own journey to find truth and deal with his daughter’s traumatic death is at odds with other families.

The graphic opening scenes depicting the aircraft falling out of the sky, with bodies, clothing, debris, and parts of the fuselage scattering across the town’s streets and neighbouring countryside has been described by victims’ groups as “tragedy porn”.

Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 said the show “amplifies falsehoods and unsupported theories; ignores the work of hundreds of family members by focusing on one; disregards the work of investigators and prosecutors; and brings to life, in grotesque detail, the events of 21 December 1988”.

The group continued: “Worst of all, the series presents a convicted murderer as an innocent man that should be empathised with.”

Cossar admits he “reluctantly” watched the show, but declines to discuss it any further.

It’s understandable that having worked so closely with the relatives of those who died in the crash, he is fiercely protective of them.

How does he think they will cope with renewed focus on the disaster which will arise from the impending trial?

“The families are, quite rightly, nervous about it, and excited about it,” he says.

“They’re 36 years older and it’s their opportunity to see justice.

“I don’t think it’ll ever give them closure – you know that clichéd saying – nothing will, but it will help them in their own personal recovery, I would think.

“There’s a real optimism as well. In the American families, there’s possibly even relief that it’s in America.”

Perhaps this is at least in part down to the decision made by the Scottish Government to release Megrahi from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds.

Cossar recalls how disappointed the families were – the Americans, in particular (190 of those who died were US citizens).

Megrahi had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, and given an estimated three months to live.

The justice secretary at the time, Kenny MacAskill, signed-off the prisoner transfer order which allowed him go back home to Libya to die.

“I don’t think [Megrahi] should have been released, and I feel for the families who had to see him going home to die with his family when they didn’t have that”

But the decision was met with fierce criticism from many corners – particularly as Megrahi went on to live another three years back home with his family.

Cossar, who has made strong links with the victims’ families over the years, was often the unfortunate recipient of their anger over the decision.

“I don’t think it’s an exact science working out exactly how long people have got left to live, or how advanced it [the cancer] is,” he says.

“But for me, I don’t think he should have been released, and I feel for the families who had to see him going home to die with his family when they didn’t have that same situation for them. I don’t think it was the right decision.

“But that was nothing to do with the police, nothing to do with Crown Office, it was solely a decision that the Scottish Government made at that time.

“For a long time, I had to explain to the American families that it was nothing to do with us, we didn’t recommend his release, nor did Crown Office, it was purely a decision that the government made.

“It was a difficult one, and I still think a lot of the families don’t fully appreciate or understand that that’s the case but we just have to keep reminding them.”

Getting to the point where they now have another suspect ready to stand trial has no doubt been driven by the desire to get justice for the families – perhaps made even stronger by the fact Megrahi got to live out his days with his family by his side instead of in prison.

“It’s always been a live investigation,” Cossar says. “We know that Megrahi wasn’t involved on his own. So, it is about trying to find out who else was involved with him and bringing them to justice.”

The work in bringing the trial against Masud has been years in the making, with Police Scotland working hand-in-hand with the FBI (after our interview, Cossar’s final meeting of the day is with his FBI counterparts).

He has travelled to the US more than 30 times over the course of the investigation to meet his American colleagues, as well as to speak to the families of victims and attend memorials.

“If there’s any new lines of inquiry, I would instigate most of them, if not all of them,” explains Cossar.

“I think the relationship with the FBI has been particularly good.

“We have constant meetings. What is important is that nobody can do this in isolation, it has to be a joint venture and it has to be a sharing of information, otherwise neither of us will get what we want.

“They’re just law enforcement officers like we are, and they’ve got a job to do as well. They come across here quite often, and I go across there to see them quite often too. It’s a really good relationship.

“All both organisations want is justice at the end of the day.”

In 2013, the search for answers took Cossar and colleagues on a potentially dangerous journey to Libya where they hoped a post-revolution environment would lead to a new sharing of information.

While it didn’t go as planned, it was all part of the persistent search for truth.

Cossar says: “At the time, after the revolution in Libya, we thought that would create lots of opportunities for us, investigation-wise, but unfortunately that didn’t really materialise in terms of getting to speak to witnesses as we’d hoped to.

“Being there was not intimidating, but you certainly were aware that it was a country that was in a complete state of turmoil, and that there could be a flash point at any time.

“We worked with ex-military officers who were our protection team and we went everywhere wearing helmets and Kevlar bullet-proof vests.

“It sounds terrifying, but the reality was we never saw an angry man.”

As we sit in Cossar’s office, we are overlooked by an enlarged image of Pan Am flight 103 fuselage; a constant and stark reminder.

The photo is from its partial reconstruction in a hangar at Farnborough airfield, where the wreckage had been stored by the Air Accident Investigation Branch for 24 years, before being returned to Dumfries and Galloway in 2013.

It will soon leave Scotland, bound for America, along with many of the 14,000 productions and more than 20,000 documents linked to the case.

Cossar has a small team dedicated to the investigation, but together they have built up “extensive knowledge” of the productions which, given the sheer volume of them, will be invaluable when it comes to the trial.

“That’s going to be really important moving forward because the Americans are likely to want, if not all, then a good chunk of that evidence for their purposes for the trial so having somebody with the knowledge of how the productions work, where they are, what they are is really important.

“Our wreckage is in Dumfries but the Americans are wanting it taken over perhaps for the trial, but certainly they want it there anyway.”

Any transfer of productions to the Americans will be overseen by Police Scotland, and Cossar will travel over to Washington to give evidence during Masud’s trial, which was due to start on May 12, but is likely to be postponed following a request from government prosecutors.

Although the stakes are high, he shrugs off any suggestion that he is worried about doing so.
“It’s my job, it’s what I signed up for.”

Cossar retired from his role as detective inspector in 2018, but was brought back in straight away to work on the investigation as a civilian staff member, gaining the new title of investigation and information manager.

“It was almost as if it was unfinished business,” explains Cossar when asked why he returned.

“You’ve invested so much of your career into something that you want to see an end result, and I found it really difficult to walk away.

“I wasn’t ready to retire, I felt I was still young – I would have had to have got another job anyway to keep me occupied.

“And what better than coming back to do a job that you really enjoy doing?

“When they asked me to do it, I think it took me a millisecond to make that decision.”

Although the investigation will remain live, Cossar is very much aware that the passage of time will eventually make things more difficult.

“Who knows in the future, if we are fortunate enough to get other people involved, there may be another trial in Scottish jurisdiction.

“The only difficulty with that is it’s 36 years on, and all the witnesses are 36 years older, and a lot of them are no longer living, so it becomes more and more difficult.

“Forensics have moved on over the years. DNA wasn’t considered at the time of the disaster because it was very much in its infancy. And because of the huge amount of productions in the case, the cost would have been insurmountable.

“But there are opportunities now, even after 36 years that DNA is a consideration for us.”

“If we are fortunate enough to get other people involved, there may be another trial in Scottish jurisdiction”

He adds that although it would be a very different investigation had the disaster occurred in the advent of forensic advances, the way it was handled at the time was an “enormous achievement” for the small police force.

“I would have to say that even after 36 years, the decisions that were made at the time by the chief constable and the senior officers in Dumfries and Galloway and elsewhere, they were probably way ahead of their time in their thinking.

“From the outset, the chief constable said that he would treat this as a crime scene until it was determined otherwise, and it was the right decision to make.

“Every area was treated as a crime scene. The amount of work that was done, and the amount of recoveries forensically that were made is just incredible.”

Cossar’s own mark on the investigation has not gone unnoticed – last year he received an MBE for his work on the inquiry and support to the bereaved families.

“I had no idea that I’d been nominated,” he says. “I got a letter out the blue and I thought it was a joke at first, an elaborate hoax.

“For the FBI, the department of justice, Crown Office and Police Scotland all to put supporting letters in to my application to receive the award was really quite humbling.

“It makes you then realise that you’re doing something right.”

But he knows he can’t go on forever, hinting that after the trial the “unfinished business” he referred to might feel, in part, complete.

“There has to be a point where I have to finish because I’m getting on.

“I’ve not quite decided when that point will be yet, but it’ll come at some stage.

“Perhaps the end of the trial might be a great time for me to think about my future.”

The deadliest flight

The deadliest flight

<< Previous article

Next article >>