I know I usually don’t post on Sundays, but this is no usual Sunday. It’s December 21, and that means it has now been 20 years since Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in flight and the remains rained down on Lockerbie, Scotland. Two hundred fifty nine people died in the air and eleven on the ground.

This picture below is one we’ve all seen many times. The nose section lay there on its side, looking deflated.Pan Am 103 Cockpit It was certainly symbolic of Pan Am’s future. The airline had been in trouble for a long time, but the dramatic disappearance of bookings following this accident was something from which the airline could never recover.

It might be surprising to know that the remembrances today are very low key. At the Lockerbie Cairn in Arlington National Cemetery, there will be a memorial service beginning at 115p. In Lockerbie itself, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Lockerbie Air Disaster Garden of Remembrance at 2p followed by a memorial service at 630p. At Syracuse University, where 35 of the victims were enrolled, there will be a memorial service at 2p. All three of these will be in progress at 203p Eastern/703p GMT when the aircraft went down.