At Gate 14, in Heathrow’s Terminal 3, passengers for Pan Am Flight 103 are starting to board the Maid Of The Seas.
The Boeing 747 has been refuelled for the 3,000-mile flight to New York and the last of the luggage is being loaded.
Bags and Christmas presents for friends and family are being placed in overhead lockers.
Shipping executive Tom Ammerman takes his seat in First Class. He was originally booked on a lunchtime departure, but his office switched flights at the last minute so he could be at one more meeting before flying home.
In Row 23 are the Rattan family returning from New Delhi after attending a relative’s wedding.
Earlier, on the first leg of Flight 103 from Frankfurt on a Boeing 727, three-year-old Suruchi Rattan, dressed in a distinctive red dress, had entertained a man in the row behind with stories of her uncle’s big day.
Finding their seats in the middle of the plane are 35 students from Syracuse University who have spent a term studying in London and Florence.
Three-year-old Suruchi Rattan was one of the passengers killed during the bombing +13
Three-year-old Suruchi Rattan was one of the passengers killed during the bombing
Two of the empty seats in First Class should have been taken by the Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten and his wife Nora. But she had taken so long to pack for their holiday that they cancelled their tickets and booked a flight for the next day.
Actress Kim Cattrall (later of Sex And The City fame) was also booked on Flight 103. But at the last minute she changed her mind as she had forgotten to buy her mother a gift of a teapot from Harrods. Kim, 32, is at Heathrow waiting to board a later flight to New York.
In an aluminium baggage container in the aircraft’s forward cargo bay area is a light brown suitcase. It contains a Toshiba ‘BomBeat’ radio cassette player. Placed inside is 450 grams of Semtex plastic explosive attached to a timer. The suitcase is only 25in from the skin of the 747’s fuselage.
5.55pm
Back in Terminal 3, car mechanic Jaswant Basuta, 47, is running as fast he can towards Flight 103’s departure gate.
He is unsteady on his feet as he’s been drinking with relatives who’d come to see him off. Basuta gets to the gate and pleads with the Pan Am duty manager to let him on, as his wife is expecting him in New York. But the duty manager refuses.
6.04pm
The Jumbo moves away from the gate and begins to slowly taxi towards Heathrow’s runway 27R. At the controls are two American pilots: 55-year-old Captain Jim MacQuarrie, who has over 4,000 hours’ experience flying 747s; and First Officer Ray Wagner with 5,000-plus hours’ experience.
6.25pm
In the darkened flight deck, Capt MacQuarrie opens the throttles of the four engines and the 330-ton jet begins to move down the runway.
Twenty minutes later, Pan Am 103 takes off through thick cloud into the dark sky. On board are 243 passengers and 16 flight crew.
6.45pm
Three hundred miles away in the small Scottish market town of Lockerbie, 14-year-old Steven Flannigan is leaving his home at 16 Sherwood Crescent and heading through the wind and rain to friend David Edward’s house to check a Christmas present — a new bicycle — for Steven’s little sister Joanne.
MailOnline
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