cover image Their Darkest Day: The Tragedy of Pan Am 103 and Its Legacy of Hope

Their Darkest Day: The Tragedy of Pan Am 103 and Its Legacy of Hope

Matthew Cox. Grove/Atlantic, $19.95 (233pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-1382-5

The December 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am's New York-bound jumbo jet flight 103 over Scotland, which killed 270 people, is dramatically re-created here by Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard reporters Cox and Foster. Compiled from an impressive array of eyewitness accounts and primary sources, the book includes poignant profiles of flight and ground victims, their families and airline and government investigatory personnel. The authors castigate politically motivated fact-finding obstructionism following the catastrophe, and show how a fingernail-size fragment of a bomb timer linked the crime to two Libyan intelligence agents whom their government continues to protect, although negotiations for their surrender are ongoing. Meanwhile, lawsuits and lobbying by victims' relatives have led to American and British aviation security reforms. Photos not seen by PW. (June)