We all remember the horrendous events of Wednesday, December 21, 1988 and what followed over the coming days, weeks, months and years.

I was at home on Friday, December 23 when the phone rang just after 7:00 pm. It was my Sergeant, Sandy Littlejohn from Ballater, and his exact words were “cancel Christmas, you’re going to Lockerbie.”

At the request of Deputy Chief Constable George Esson, an ex-Grampian officer, four of us were to go with our tracked vehicle to Lockerbie to assist with casualty recovery. As well as myself, there would be team leader Louis Murray, Graham Gibb (our future team leader) and Terry McBain.

I broke the news to my wife, Anne, who helped me pack. I was unable to confirm when we would return or whether it would be in time for Christmas.

Later that night, after loading the Kässbohrer onto an eight-wheeled flatbed lorry, the four of us began the long haul over Glenshee, following the lorry in the Braemar Police Land Rover.

We arrived early on the morning of December 24, Christmas Eve, at Lockerbie Academy. My uncle had attended the school in 1950. The place was busy but sombre. There was none of the usual banter among emergency service workers, just a calm resolve that there was a job to be done.

After breakfast, Graham and Terry went to a B&B to catch up on much needed sleep, intending to relieve us later that day. Meanwhile, Louis and I travelled down through the village, which was a scene of utter devastation. The air reeked of aviation fuel as we slowly drove up and out of the village, heading for Tundergarth.

After travelling for approximately three miles, we arrived and parked beside Tundergarth Parish Church, a short distance from where the nose section of Flight 103 had come to rest. It was difficult to take in what we were seeing, and we sat in silence for a few minutes.

We were then tasked with recovering casualties from the fields above Tundergarth Farm. As we drove up towards the farm, I could see several white body bags lying at various points across the farmer’s fields.

As we approached the first casualty, I jumped out and spoke to the uniformed police officers who were quietly guarding and protecting their charges. We then gently and respectfully placed the bags into the rear of our vehicle. This was sadly repeated many times throughout the day as we headed up through the fields adjacent to the farm. We treated each casualty with the respect and dignity they deserved before heading back into town with our precious cargo.

That concluded our time at Lockerbie. We were advised that all the casualties had been recovered from our area and that our vehicle was no longer required. A phone call to Dumfries secured a low loader and after meeting up with our colleagues, we loaded up and headed home, following the HGV slowly North.

We arrived back in Braemar in the early hours of Christmas Day.

Lockerbie will remain in the history of Braemar Mountain Rescue forever. I have been back to the town and to Tundergarth since 1988 and will never forget what we did and saw.

We returned to our families, but many others never did. Mountain rescuers always strive to bring people home, and hopefully, Braemar MRT played a small part in bringing some of the 270 home.