I joined the RAF at the age of 19. After basic flying training and gaining my ‘wings’, I completed a helicopter conversion course. My first operational tour was on active service in Borneo, during the Malaysian/Indonesian confrontation. On returning to England, after an instructors’ course, I was again on active service in Aden at the troubled time during the British withdrawal in 1967. I was Mentioned-in-Dispatches for this work after my helicopter was badly damaged by enemy fire. In 1968, I graduated from the Empire Test Pilots School with a distinguished pass and remained for the following three years at the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down. I was the project test pilot for the clearance of the Puma into RAF service and flew a range of other helicopters including the Chinook and its competitor, the Sikorsky CH53. I was awarded the Air Force Cross for test flying work done during this period. This was followed by a three-year tour as a test pilot on exchange duties with the Canadian Forces at Cold Lake, Alberta. I then returned to England in 1975 to an operational tour on Puma helicopters based at RAF Odiham, seeing active service in Northern Ireland and Belize. 

Immediately following the loss of Pan American Flight 103, a dozen AAIB inspectors gathered at Heathrow Airport to await the availability of a Pan Am aircraft to fly us, together with members of their own staff, to Carlisle airport. After we arrived at about 1:00 am on the following morning, the majority of AAIB staff went to hotels in Carlisle while I, with the Chief Inspector and a Senior Engineer, was taken by the police to Lockerbie. There, we were shown six sites, including the huge crater and the cockpit, which had been identified by the police. By dawn, we were back at the Lockerbie Academy, which had been requisitioned by the police for the investigation.

As the Investigator-in-Charge for the Department for Transport, I was always aware of the huge international interest in the event and the pressure on me to deliver a thorough investigation. At its peak, there were 15 inspectors from the AAIB supported by (amongst others) experts from the National Transportation Safety Board (the American equivalent of the AAIB), the US Federal Aviation Administration, staff from Pan American World Airways, Pratt & Whitney, the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company, and the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, to create my team of 50 investigators. We were also able to assist the police service with their criminal investigation when necessary. My task was to coordinate half a dozen teams, each within an appointed geographical area, to locate and record the wreckage and work progressively to the east to cover the two main wreckage trails spreading right across the country to the east coast of England. Within three days, we had located items of wreckage showing signs of explosive damage but continued to search for further such items until forensic experts confirmed the detonation of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) using high-performance plastic explosive. At a press conference one week after the event, I gave a prepared statement to this effect, which was immediately followed by the Chief Constable confirming that this was now the largest criminal terrorist event ever experienced in Great Britain.

With the aid of the Royal Air Force (RAF), wreckage was recovered to Longtown, a British Army storage depot on the border between England and Scotland, where items were positioned in a two-dimensional layout to enable us to pinpoint the location of the IED in the fuselage.

I also tasked Peter Claiden, one of our Senior Engineering Inspectors, to reconstruct two of the cargo containers which showed evidence of explosive damage. The pieces of these containers were recovered over a distance on the ground of about 40 kilometres.

While doing this, he found a small piece of printed circuit board trapped in the data plate of the metal container. This was to prove vital to the police investigation when the forensic experts were able to link it to a specific radio-cassette player. We brought much of the forward fuselage to Farnborough and made a three-dimensional reconstruction of the wreckage to locate the position of the container holding the IED in the forward cargo hold of the fuselage.

The task back at Farnborough was to continue to research the way in which the explosive forces had propagated through the fuselage to bring about the destruction of the aircraft. Much time was then spent producing the AAIB report on the results of our investigation. 

When I was satisfied with my final draft of the report, I decided to ask as many of the relatives who wished to do so to visit the AAIB at Farnborough in January/February 1990. Relatives decided to come in relatively small groups. I briefed them on the outcome of our investigation and they were able to view the wreckage. I found it a humbling and at times an emotional experience to be able to talk to them openly and answer their questions as fully as possible. They were fulsome in their thanks for this because they said that we were the first organisation to have given them any detailed information. I signed the final report in July 1990, and it was published the following month. 

I was called to give evidence to the Fatal Accident Inquiry in Dumfries and subsequently at the trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. Additional groups of relatives visited the AAIB during the period of the trial for briefings similar to those that had been provided in 1990.

It was a privilege to be asked to head the Department for Transport investigation into this major terrorist event and I would like to thank all of the other agencies involved for their willing help when required.