Jim Manson had a love of the outdoors, which led him to publish a guidebook of the local hills, Walks in the Moffat Hills and the Lowthers, and to join the Moffat Mountain Rescue Team. On the night of the bombing, the team was called out to volunteer.

Jim and Maureen were at home on the night of December 21, washing the dishes after supper, when they heard an explosion and rushed outside to find out what was going on. Shortly afterwards, Jim was called away to join the Moffat Mountain Rescue Team to search the crash site.

Maureen found herself alone at home with no telephone connection. She worried for her husband, Jim, who didn’t come home that night.

Iain saw the news of the bombing and decided to drive to Lockerbie straight away to make sure his parents were safe and to help out the Mountain Rescue Team with the search operation.

Iain’s father Jim returned around breakfast time on the 22nd, having been out all night. He was keen to head back out again to help and enlisted Iain and his brother, also called Jim, to help.

Iain remembers having conflicting feelings about being beside his father and brother searching in the hills amid the horrific circumstances. 

Iain remembers a spirit of camaraderie among the volunteers and particularly between the different mountain rescue teams. 

Iain learned from his dad that most of the bodies were discovered on the first night so that second night was focused primarily on what could be found in the debris.

The Moffat Mountain Rescue Team met on December 22nd at Tundergarth, where the nose cone was located, before going up to Burnswark. Iain remembers finding bits of steel that belonged to the aircraft’s seats and some items of clothing belonging to the victims. The mountain rescue teams were stood down on Christmas Eve.

The family were all together for Christmas, but it was a sombre day. All they could think about was the disaster.

After Christmas, Maureen volunteered at the old primary school where she served coffee to the police teams investigating the sites. She helped out at the school until the following spring.

Jim found a number of the victims, including Gwyneth Owen, a young Welsh mother who was on the airplane with her baby daughter. He also found Maria Nieves de Larracoechea, a Spanish flight attendant. Following the disaster Jim remained in communication with Gwyneth’s mother and Maria’s sister and helped them visit Lockerbie.

Despite the harrowing things that he encountered, Jim was never offered therapy. However, a number of the members of the mountain rescue teams met in the Lake District to talk about what they had been through. Iain noticed that the disaster affected his father, making him more tense, but that his connection with the victims’ families and his friends in mountain rescue provided him some support.

Maureen and Iain explain how much Jim loved to be outdoors, preferably in the hills or in his garden that he planted with Maureen. Being in nature was a coping mechanism for Jim, and his love for nature was passed down to Iain.

Maureen and Iain discuss how they tried to move on from the event and how media coverage impacted the process. Ultimately, Maureen explained, she was trying to keep the family going. 

 

Iain recalls how he felt about the trial of Al-Megrahi and Fhimah. He was pleased to see some form of justice but explains the frustration that resulted from thinking the men who were on trial were not the leaders of the operation.

Iain is impressed with the efforts to make the old Dryfesdale Church in Lockerbie into a museum and memorial site, trying to help define Lockerbie not just as the site of a disaster, but as a thriving community. 

He explains that if we can teach the lessons from the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie disaster, then perhaps we can prevent something like this from happening in the future.